SECRETARY'S REPORT. 163 



merit more pure, more copious, or more beneficial to them- 

 selves or their fellow-citizens ? To say notliTng of the value 

 of forest trees for what are strictly denominated useful pur- 

 poses, let us ask, in what way any individual among us can do 

 more to decorate and beautify the country ? How many millions 

 have been devoted in this as well as in other communities to 

 architecture ! and yet how little have the results corresponded 

 to the time, the effort, and the money so expended ! For one 

 chaste and magnificent edifice we have ten irregular and dis- 

 proportioned piles, countenancing, and almost justifying, the 

 sweeping remark of a distinguished author, that the genius of 

 architecture had shed its malediction on America. But he 

 who rears a stately grove or avenue bestows an ornament on 

 his native land which none but a Vandal would wish to destroy. 



How much has been done in Boston and its beautiful en- 

 virons by the taste and public spirit of a few individuals ! 

 To pass over numerous other instances, we are indebted to 

 some unknown benefactor of former days for the chief orna- 

 ment of the city — the triple colonnade of weeping elms in the 

 Mall; and it is owing to the good taste of another accom- 

 plished individual of later days (the late G. W. Brimmer, 

 Esq.) that the majestic, or, as we may now call them, the 

 sacred, groves of Mount Auburn were rescued from the wood- 

 man's axe. 



It is not merely, however, to those who are or may be 

 practically engaged in the propagation or preservation of 

 forest trees, though these I hope are not few, that these re- 

 marks are directed. Though comparatively a small number 

 may be the planters or the owners of groves or of gardens, all 

 may be admirers of forest scenery. For the indulgence of 

 such a taste we have the highest intellectual authority. " A 

 tree in full leaf,'' says Lord Bacon, "is a nobler object than a 

 king in his coronation robes." But it is in a community like 

 our own, above all others, that a taste for the beauties of for- 

 est trees, as well as an acquaintance with their nature and 

 uses, should be carefully cultivated. It is sufficient to recom- 

 mend it that it furnishes a never-failing source of occupation 

 and amusement to those who travel in this country, and a 



