174 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



adaptation of flowers and insects to each other for mutual benefit, — 

 the flower often dependent upon the insect for fertilization, the 

 insect in return receiving houey and food. 



I may also name the work of informing ourselves by observa- 

 tion and by study of the value of public parks, realizing how much 

 education, as well as health, a communit}' may gain from them, 

 and hence the moral obligation resting upon every city or large 

 town to provide attractive public grounds for recreation. Realiz- 

 ing, too, the diflference between a park constructed and planted by 

 a man who, bv taste and education, is in deep sympathy with 

 nature, and grounds "laid out" by one whose highest aim is only 

 to make drives of eas}- grade and to secure a few bold and unex- 

 pected ertects. Often in his hands the grounds are too literally 

 " laid out" as for the burial of all true life which gives to hill and 

 dale their beauty and their power to speak in tones of cheer and 

 love to man. Let any one who would fully understand what I 

 mean by this, and how much it covers, read the pamphlet written 

 by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, entitled, " The Justifying Argu- 

 ments for a Public Park." 



Great occasions, calling for great endeavors to meet great 

 emergencies, are most marked fertilizers, — not to be sought or 

 bought indeed, but to be used ; developing to our surprise a 

 sudden show of,will or of wisdom or of soul, which, once aroused, 

 becomes an abiding strength. Note the marvellous power which 

 the affections have in quickening the intellect, stimulating it to a 

 vigor it never before knew. This is the secret of the steady 

 mental growth of many of the world's philanthropists, who began 

 life with very little evidence of intellectual vigor but with a 

 great deal of heart. But as years went on the intellect became 

 enlarged and enriched and strong. Man}' such cases could be 

 cited. 



And let us not fail to credit our radical reformers (even those 

 who to some quieter natures seem, at the time perhaps, intemper- 

 ate in their zeal), — let us not fail to credit them with a fertilizing 

 influence of immense value. Often these are the men who first 

 arouse attention to the study of those earnest problems of political 

 economy and of politics, which are involved in any attempt to 

 remedy radically great existing wrongs in society. As the sun- 

 baked or turf-bound field has to be torn by the breaking-up 

 plow, with the cutter of steel upon its oaken beam, and the sun- 



