322 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



hold in their crystaUine embrace the flora of an antedehivian 

 world. 



" O, there is not lost 

 One of eartli's cliarms ; upon her bosom yet 

 After the flight of untold centuries, 

 The freshness of her far beginning lies 

 And yet shall lie." 



But to become more practical ; in this desire for variety 

 above alluded to, ^yhich is certainly most praiseworthy and 

 should be gratified, why do not florists as well as botanists 

 oftener draw forth from their quiet retreats in the coppice and 

 meadow, the beautiful and fragrant plants (not a few) from 

 among our native wildlings, that they, in their simple purity, 

 might adorn our borders and mingle their sweets with the 

 pampered and often deformed aliens that usurp the entire 

 dominion of the flower garden; which exotic plantsa not 

 great while since, in simpler garb, embellished the wilds of 

 other lands, where they were originally native ? 



What shrub can be found more fragrant than our Elethra, or 

 more beautiful than our Laurel ? What plant more curious 

 than the Side-saddle flower ? and the whole world of flowers 

 may be " challenged to excel the intense red of the Lobelia 

 cardinalis." American plants are greatly esteemed abroad ; 

 that section of the English gentlemen's grounds designated the 

 " American Garden," and which contains our Magnolias, Kal- 

 mias, Azalias, and smaller plants, is one of the chief attractions 

 of those often extensive domains. 



What a field is opened here, also, for ingenious fancy and 

 scientific acumen, in the crossing of our wild plants with kindred 

 species among the exotics of the garden, the unions whereof 

 would undoubtedly result in the production of hybrids of new 

 and singular forms, that no eye has yet beheld, thereby reward- 

 ing the skill and ingenuity of man, with the gift of new crea- 

 tions. To persons at all intimate with our native flora, numerous 

 alliances will readily suggest themselves as among the proba- 

 bilities of success. 



We need not go out of our native county for novelties or 

 •magnificence in this department. Flora has honored Essex 

 County above many a milder region that lies between us and 



