252 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



FEBRUARY 19, 1831. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICUL- 

 TURAL SOCIETY ( 



M their Fifth Annual Festival, September 18, 1S33. 

 BY ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. 



PUBLISHED BV REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 



Gentlemen of the Horticultural Society : — 



Is attempting to address you on this occasion, 

 I have consulted my wish not to appear insensible 

 to the kindness of the request that brings me here, 

 to a greater extent, perhaps, than prudence would 

 justify. Though fully aware of the importance and 

 attractive character of the art which forms the ob- 

 ject of your institution, the nature of my pursuits 

 through life has been such as to deprive me of the 

 opportunity of obtaining more than a very limited 

 acquaintance with its details; and in the absence 

 of the resources of imagination and eloquence 

 which others might draw upon to supply the want 

 of actual knowledge, I must throw myself, without 

 reserve, on your indulgence. Even the little prac- 

 tical information to which I might pretend on the 

 subject of fruits, flowers, and gardens, relates 

 chiefly to those that are found in other countries, 

 where it has been my fortune to pass the greater 

 part of the mature period of my life, and may not 

 perhaps, be applicable here. May I venture to 

 add, that there is one particular in which my ex- 

 perience, in regard to foreign fruits, differs from 

 that of some preceding travellers ? The compan- 

 ions of Ulysses, as we are told by Homer, found, 

 somewhere on the coast of Africa, a fruit which 

 he calls the Lotus, the taste of which was so deli- 

 cious, that those who had once eaten it lost the 

 desire to return to their native country, and re- 

 mained for life among the Lote-Eaters, who it 

 fcoems, derived their political name from tht'w fa- 

 vorite fruit. Critics and horticulturists are not 

 agreed as to the precise fruit intended in this pas- 

 sage. Whatever it may have been, it has not been 

 my fortune, in the course of my travels, to taste it; 

 and I have generally found that the fruits and flow- 

 ers which pleased me best in other countries, were 

 those which brought most vividly to mind the re- 

 collection of my own. 



Horticulture, in its simplest application, pro- 

 poses to improve the qualities of vegetables, flow- 

 ers, and fruits. In its higher departments, it as- 

 sumes the character of one of the elegant arts, and 

 teaches the disposition of grounds and gardens, 

 whether intended for the recreation of individuals, 

 the ornament of cities and palaces, or the reposi- 

 tories of the dead. Permit me to say a few words 

 upon each of these divisions of the subject. 



I. The first in order and in immediate practical 

 importance of the objects of Horticulture, is the 

 improvement of the qualities of vegetables, fruits, 

 and flowers, including the introduction of new and 

 valuable varieties from foreign countries. "I am 

 gstonished," says an elegant French writer, "at 

 the indifference with which wo regard the names 

 and memories of those who have naturalized among 

 n the fruits and flowers of other climates." The 

 ■ i was not the same among the Roman.?. Pliny 

 3 i: his boast, that of the eight sorts of cher- 

 ries known at Home in his time, one was c 



i- of one of tin- members of I , 

 ' i it into Italy. The other 

 ■ ho names of the nrost distin- 

 guished! he" Julian, which wa 

 r irs. The fir l eh Try trees were 

 brou; in to ramie from Pontus, in Asia Minor, hj 

 Lu.iilliis, after the defeat of Mithridates, who wal- 



king of that country. In less than a century they 

 had spread themselves over the whole of Europe, 

 — even in the then remote and barbarous island of 

 Britain. The distinguished naturalist to whom I 

 just alluded, also commemorates the good fortune 

 of Pompey the Great, and the Emperor Vespasian, 

 in having carried, in their triumphant entries into 

 Rome, on their returns from their campaigns in 

 Syria, the Ebony-tree and the Balm of Gilead. 



Modern nations have not, however, been entirely 

 regardless of the services of eminent individuals in 

 this particular. France herself bestowed upon one 

 species of the same fruit, which bore, in ancient 

 times, the names of Cajsar and PJiny, the scarcely 

 less illustrious one of Montmorency. She also 

 gave to our " fragrant weed" its scientific appella- 

 tion of JYicotiana, in honor of Nicot, her Ambassa- 

 dor in Portugal, who is supposed, in France at 

 least, to have introduced it into Europe, although 

 the merit is attributed, in England, to Sir Walter 

 Raleigh. Her writers have gratefully recorded the 

 service rendered to the West of Europe by Bus- 

 beck, an Austrian Ambassador at Constantinople, 

 who brought home with him from his embassy, 

 the Lilac, one of the most beautiful of our flower- 

 ing shrubs. Of late years it has even become 

 common to designate the most curious and beauti- 

 ful sorts of non-descript plants, as they are discov- 

 ered, by the name of the discoverer or that of 

 some other person of high scientific fame. Thus 

 the laurel of our woods has obtained its scientific 

 name of Kalmia, from the Swedish naturalist, 

 Kalm ; while his countryman, Dahl, has furnished 

 one to the plant, whose brilliant and various flow- 

 ers, though so recently naturalized among us, al- 

 ready adorn all our gardens, and contribute so 

 much to the beauty of your exhibitions. 



In the culture of flowers, the Dutch have per- 

 haps excelled all other nations. Their taste is, 

 however, somewhat limited in its objects, and 

 confines itself almost exclusively to the tulip, the 

 rose, nnd the hyacinth. The rage for tulips, that 

 prevailed at one time in that country, and the ex- 

 travagant height to which the conventional value 

 of particular varieties was carried, are well known. 

 A pressure in the tulip market was then nearly as 

 serious a thing in Holland as a pressure in the 

 money market is in this country at the present 

 day. Although the taste for flowers no longer 

 exists to the same degree as it once did in Holland, 

 that country is still the place where they are most 

 extensively cultivated, and whence they are sent 

 as articles of merchandize to all parts of the world. 

 The principal tulip and hyacinth gardens are at 

 Haarlem. The largest that I saw there contained 

 not less than three or four acres of ground, and 

 was really a brilliant spectacle. The principal 

 rose-gardens are at Nordwyck, on the German 

 Ocean. In the tulip gardens every variety has its 

 name, derived commonly from some great political 

 character, and has its fixed price in the florist's 

 catalogue. We have seen, during the present sea- 

 son, a specimen of one of these tulip gardens, laid 

 out on a small scale by one of your members, in 

 which a considerable number of the most curious 

 and brilliant varieties i colli led in one par- 



terre. In selecti iduals v 



I lants, tin" florists dis- 

 play a very laudable ii i ity, and take them 

 ajike from all countries and all parties. V. 

 for example, in Mr. Walker's little collection, a 

 the Fourteenth, a Bonaparte, and a Washing- 

 ton, blooming very amicably, side by side, in the 



same enclosure. There is even room to suspect 

 that these names were not bestowed with any ref- 

 erence to intellectual capacity or moral worth; but 

 rather, perhaps, under the influence of a slight 

 tincture of legitimacy. Lewis the Fourteenth, was, 

 by far, the most brilliant flower in the collection, 

 and commanded the high price of ten guineas, 

 while Bonaparte and Washington mingled rather 

 obscurely with the common herd, and might be 

 had for about five shillings a-piece. 



Washington has been rather more fortunate in 

 fruits than in flowers. His name, as I am told by 

 one of your most distinguished members, has late- 

 ly been given to a new and most delicious variety 

 of Pears, which, though very recently introduced, 

 is said to have already eclipsed the reputation of 

 the St. Michael's and the St. Germain's. 



Our barren soil and wintry climate do not admit 

 of a very luxuriant vegetation, and we can never 

 hope to naturalize among us the magnificent pro- 

 ducts of the tropical climates, which either perish 

 at once or dwindle into comparatively dwarfish 

 shapes. We possess, however, most of the flowers 

 and fruits which thrive in the corresponding tem- 

 perate regions of the old world. The Queen of 

 Flowers presides in our gardens, as in those of 

 Greece and Persia; and the King of Fruits, as the 

 vine has sometimes been emphatically called, covers 

 our rocks with a royal mantle of spontaneous ver-* 

 diire. In improving these natural gifts to the ut- 

 most, we have ample scope for the exercise of skill 

 and taste. The culture of the Vine may, perhaps, 

 be mentioned as one of the branches of your art, 

 which deserves more attention than it has yet re- 

 ceived. The best European wines, such as Cham- 

 pagne, Burgundy, and the various sorts of Rhenish 

 and Moselle, which have recently become such 

 general favorites among us, are all produced in 

 latitudes considerably higher than ours. Where 

 the Vine grows spontaneously with great luxuri- 

 ance, there is reason to suppose, that, with proper 

 care, its fruit may be brought to any degree of per- 

 fection. When the northern navigators from Ice- 

 land visited the coasts of this country, seven or 

 eight hundred years ago, and made a settlement on 

 a spot, probably not very distant from the territory 

 we occupy, they were so much struck with the 

 luxuriant growth of the Vine, that they gave to 

 their discovery the name of Wineland, which was 

 thus, by a rather singular accident, appropriated to 

 one of the few countries within the temperate re- 

 gions of the Christian world, where no wine was 

 ever made. A more general and careful cultiva- 

 tion of the Vine may, perhaps, enable us to justify 

 the application of this ancient title, and furnish the 

 community at a cheap rate, with a palatable, heal- 

 thy, and refreshing substitute for ardent spirit, 

 which the friends of temperance among us are 

 now so earnestly endeavoring to banish from gen- 

 eral consumption. [To be continued. 



From the Genesee Fanner. 

 A KEW AND VALUABLE GRAPE, THE 

 " TO KALON." 



On a recent tour t<> the eai t, a friend of mine 

 from Lansingburgh informed me that the widow 

 of the late Dr. I had growing in her 



ring profusely, a new and \ i ' 

 ; om a foreign variety, ori; 

 by her husband. The variety from which it was 

 produced he was not able to inform me. It is 

 described as a purple grape of an oval shape, larger 





