324 Mr. Watterstoii's Address before the 



and leaves to the light, not towards the air, and that the 

 leaves of many plants go regnlarly to sleep when the light 

 departs. Pliny and Theophrastus mention the lotus of 

 the Euphrates, as sinking helow the water, to rise above it 

 and expand its blossom as the sun returns. The continued 

 motion of leaves, it is thought, serves the purposes of ani- 

 mal respiration and exercise. Mr. W. here quoted some 

 eloquent remarks from the Jow-nal of a Naturalist, on the 

 object and uscfulucss of leaves, in accomplishing the re- 

 quirements of the plant and its products. 



He next glanced at the tardy progress of horticulture, 

 which, he said, had not kept pace witli the other arts, though, 

 according to Poiteau, the cradle of agriculture would be 

 found in the garden. "There, like the young Hercules, she 

 first tried her powers, and prepared, like him, to overrun the 

 world, which she speedily cleared of monsters, and bestowed 

 upon man the laws of civilization." He stated that many 

 of the fruits, flowers, and esculent vegetables, which had 

 been obtained by the Greeks and Romaiis, from Egypt and 

 otiier Eastern nations, were spread gradually over the west- 

 ern parts of Europe, but their progress was slow, and until 

 the reign of Henry VHI. there was scarcely a culinary veg- 

 etable cultivated in England, and the small quantity con- 

 sumed was imported from Holland. Charles H. was the 

 first to introduce French gardening, at Hampton Court, and 

 built the first hot-house known in England. Mr. W. at- 

 tributed to the Catholic clergy the merit of having pre- 

 served this art, at a time when every other was neglected. 

 Large and extensive tracts of land, in Italy, Spain and 

 France, which had been permitted to lie in a state of des- 

 olation from the time the Gauls and Saracens made their 

 first incursions, had been restored to fertility by the indus- 

 try and labor of the monks of St. Bargil and St. Benedict; 

 and Raron Humboldt, he said, had stated, that in the course 

 of a very short period, the Jesuits had spread the knowl- 

 edge and enjoyment of all our common esculent veg- 

 etables from one end of the American continent to the 

 other. But within a few years, horticulture had advanced 

 with rapid strides, and by the establishment of numerous 

 Associations, both in Europe and this country, devoted to 

 its encouragement, it promised to attain to high perfection 

 as an art, and to confer countless blessings on the world. 



He then spoke of the enemies it had to encounter in the 



