106 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



your own, we are striving to follow in a measure your noble 

 example and to j^rofit by the generous help Avhich you are always 

 ready to give. Your Arnold Arboretum has aided our experi- 

 mental farm work in a princely manner, and your ever welcome 

 publications are a constant stimvilus towards progress. Although 

 not under quite the same form of government, we are of the same 

 stock as yourselves, and the love for and appreciation of the 

 marvellous beauties of nature brings like pleasure wherever we 

 dwell, whether we acknowledge as our ruler a worthy president 

 or a matchless queen. Horticulture is bounded by no political 

 lines, but in every community where the mind is sufficiently cult- 

 ured to appreciate the wonderful beauties Avith which the world 

 is studded, there these lovely trees and shrubs and flowers, which 

 combine so much of grace and beauty, become a perennial source 

 of quiet delight. They are but expressions of the thoughts of 

 the great Creator, who established and sustains the laws which 

 govern their growth and development. Some love for the beauti- 

 ful in nature is found in almost every breast, and companionship 

 with such charming objects tends to deepen and enlarge that 

 feeling of admiration, to elevate our thoughts and lead them 

 from ISTature up to Nature's God. Their beauty is inspiring, 

 and while Ave study them we catch the spirit and gladly folloAV 

 the teaching of the great Master in his inimitable Sermon on 

 the Mount, Avhen, gazing on the lovely floAvers growing around 

 him, Avith the deepest insight into the perfection of their beauty, 

 he exhorted his hearers to '' Consider the lilies of the Held hoAv 

 they grow. ... I say unto you that even Solomon in all hia 

 glory Avas not arrayed like one of these." 



