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10 



and refined art of gardening." We love and revere the 

 name of such a noble man : we shall never forget his un- 

 selfish labors, and, when our edifice is completed, it will, I 

 am sure, be the hope that his statue may have a prominent 

 place within it. But whether statue or bust shall ever 

 grace our hall, this building will be the enduring memo- 

 rial of his genius and services, and his name will be held 

 in grateful remembrance by a thousand generations. 

 ' But it is since the completion of the former hall that 

 the progress of the Society has been more rapid, and its 

 influence felt throughout the entire country. New life and 

 fresh vitality were infused into the Society. It had the 

 sympathy, as it had the substantial aid, of the pubhc. It 

 was appreciated as its founders intended it should be. Its 

 objects seemed all at once to become apparent. / It encour- 

 aged and promoted the science and practice of horticult- 

 ure ; — it stimulated the production and introduction of 

 new flowers, fruits, trees, and plants; — it rewarded the 

 cultivator for the best specimens of his skill ; — it gathered 

 together, for the use of the members, a library of the 

 most celebrated English and French works on garden- 

 ing; — it made known through its weekly and annual exhi- 

 bitions all the choicer productions of the garden, the 

 orchard, and the greenhouse; — it awakened a taste for 

 ornamental and landscape art, and it disseminated through 

 its annual reports a vast fund of information upon every 

 branch of horticulture. 



