14 



and alluring toils of the garden, should render us less 

 capable of performing all the active duties which may 

 devolve upon us, than those who tread the " dim and 

 treeless city," occupied in a ceaseless coriapetition for 

 wealth and fame. 



How much, indeed, do we owe to such illustrious pio- 

 neers as Lowell, Welles, Quincy, Sullivan, Pickering, 

 Preble, Guild, and others. May their zeal, perseverance, 

 integrity, high moral wcrth and Christian spirit be an 

 example to those who succeed them, and may their dis- 

 tinguished services be held in perpetual remembrance. 



It was about this period, 1822, that Mr. Lowell wrote to 

 Mr. Knight, President of the London Horticultural Society, 

 for a copy of their transactions for Harvard College. " He 

 replied," says the writer, " in a most friendly manner, ap- 

 peared to be highly gratified with opening an intercourse 

 with our country, expressed his strong attachment to it, 

 his disgust at the libels on our country, in some presses of 

 Great Britain, and his intention to send some of his best 

 new fruits which the late improvements had introduced." 



In the following year, 1823, Mr. Knight's promise was 

 fulfilled. A letter was received, and with it a box of trees 

 and scions containing ten varieties of pears, two of apples, 

 four of cherries and two of plums. All these Mr. Lowell, 

 at Mr. Knight's particular request, was to cultivate in his 

 grounds and disseminate them as extensively as possible. 

 To this opportune correspondence, the actual possession of 

 these new fruits, their high reputation abroad, and the 



