Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 389 



on the coffins of the dead. And here is another of their most grateful and 

 beautiful uses — ornamenting the table at a festival, enlivening the scene and 

 enchanting the eye. 



In that " Central flow^ery land," this is the case at all festivals, — flow- 

 ers there adorn the table, and meet the eye in every direction on all festal 

 occasions. But they are not there accompanied by what we here enjoy. 

 Here alone — here and in Christian lands — woman enchants and beautifies 

 with her presence the festive scene. Woman — our equal — shall 1 not say 

 our moral superior. It is only here that such a scene can gladden the hu- 

 man eye. I regard this exhibition as a striking proof of the point which 

 education and intellectual refinement have reached in our country — that we 

 have got beyond mere utility, and ceasing to inquire how far it is incompat- 

 ible with beauty, have found that the beautiful is of itself useful. We 

 have learned to admire art — to appreciate painting and sculpture — and to 

 look upon fruits and flowers as models of delicacy and beauty. And al- 

 though it is said that Massachusetts produces nothing but the ice of her 

 lakes and the granite of her hills, yet we know that she also produces men 

 free-hearted, high-minded, noble-purposed men and women — the fairest and 

 best. They are also the beautiful growth of our land. It is here that we 

 have the best proof of the intellectual and moral elevation to which our fa- 

 vored State has ascended. And I trust that hereafter men — natives of our 

 soil, born, bred, living here, enjoying the bracing air, the high qualities, 

 the strength of character, the high privileges, and more than all, the high 

 principles and aspirations after all good things which we so highly prize — 

 may ever be, as now, the indigenous product of the soil of Massachusetts. 



The Chair then gave — 



The Ladies — The blossoms of loveliness ! Our " lasting treasures," our amaranthine 

 flowers I 



Woman — The earliest gatherer of fruits. By picking the first apple, she caused the 

 first pair to fall. 



The Ladies and Floioers — Ministering angels to man. 



An ode, written expressly for the occasion by R. H. Bacon, Esq., was 

 then sung. 



Our Merchant Princes — Their ships have ploughed the sea, and furrovk^ed the ocean ; 

 their enterprise garners up rich crops, which their liberality now dispenses with an un- 

 sparing hand. 



Mr. Wilder added : — In the remarks that I had the pleasure to submit 

 this evening, I had intended to express the hope, that some of the wealth 

 and private munificence that was overflowing to other institutions, might 

 reach us, and establish a permanent fund, the interest of which should be 

 dispensed in Gold and Silver Medals, bearing the name of the donor, (after 

 the manner of the gold and silver Banksian and Knightian Medals of the 

 London Horticultural Society,) but, ere my desire was expressed, the hope 

 was anticipated by the following communication from one of our oldest and 

 most respectable members, a citizen who enjoys a large share of the love 

 and esteem of the community, and has, by his liberal donations, blessed the 



