owes its origin to an English climate, introduced at an early- 

 period into the colony, and scarcely straying out of the pre- 

 cincts of the county. Profusely scattered over hill-top and 

 under pine shades, or bedecking the transparent borders of 

 fairy lakes, are native flowers too, of rare occurrence, whose 

 prototypes perchance gladdened the eyes of the pilgrims as 

 does their vernal or aestival blossoms now, those of their 

 descendants ; plants of great interest and gradually intro- 

 ducing themselves into culture. The hght, warm soil of 

 Nantucket, productive of little else than a depauperated 

 growth of oak, has been rendered the subject of horticultu- 

 ral skill, with whose choice products of the vine under 

 green-house culture, few other districts can compare. Family 

 tradition has given to Salem a venerable relic yet in compar- 

 ative vigor of growth — perhaps the first imported English 

 pear, (in the garden of Endicott,) while not only the fruit list, 

 but even the flower catalogue, will mark that its soil has not 

 degenerated in the produce of Horticultural Science. The 

 bold and rugged promontory of Nahant, washed by the per- 

 petual spray of the ocean, is already blooming with sheltered 

 flower borders, and destined to be again covered with some 

 hardy tenant of forest growth.* 



A view thus retrospective, even in the extended vista of 

 two centuries, and over an area so thrilling with mementos 

 of olden times cannot be vvithout practical benefit. Little 

 remains to us of the original features of such times, save 

 here and there a traditionary and revered relic, a few hoary 

 and moss grown trunks of the primitive forest, or the endu- 

 ring, never changing feature of geological formation ; yet the 

 thought that other flowers and fairer fruits have been introduced 

 and naturalized, to add wealth and the comforts to existence, 

 not only to our day and generation, but to those who will suc- 

 ceed ; that the asperities of an almost boreal clime, and the 

 harshness of a rude soil have been overcome, that each year 



* See notes. 



