Middlesex Horticultural Society. 171 



productive and delicious Seckel, and the rich Bon Chretien or 

 Bartlett, and a host beside, too numerous for detail, and only 

 to be known by an acquaintance with the details of our pursuits 

 in this science. 



The peach, nectarine and apricot are all most favorably- 

 adapted to city culture. Trained to the wall, or planted as 

 near as possible to the sides of the house, they are protected 

 against frosts, and furnish an ornament, and at the same time a 

 luxury of great attraction. One may realize a two-fold advan- 

 tage in these trees. What more beautiful than the roseate 

 flowers of the peach and nectarine, or the snowy inflorescence 

 of the apricot? The warm sunny days of early April call the 

 latter into life and elegance, to be soon succeeded with as fair 

 fruit. The foliage of the peach and nectarine, too, is highly 

 ornamental and slowly deciduous, while a certainty of a crop 

 may be secured. 



But quitting for the present, at least, these good things of 

 the earth, the very catalogue of which almost tempts one to 

 turn culturist, who owns an inch of soil, and at which our 

 mouths water in delightful anticipation, all within the capacity 

 of our Society, and worthy its regards, we shall find that there 

 are reasons, also, why our attention to floriculture might prom- 

 ise equal success. 



The floricultural year may be divided into four epochs of 

 great splendor, which I shall call, — 



1. The Bulbous. 



2. The Pansy. 



3. The Rose. 



4. The Dahlia. 



While the entire summer and autumnal months recognize the 

 new and brilliant ornaments of the flower beds, the Verbenas. 

 Of the first, you may have, in a small area, some of the 

 earliest, as well as the most beautiful visitants of spring. First 

 come the ever welcome snow-drop, peeping from under the 

 wasting snow drift, in the warm, sunny spots of the garden, and 

 reminding you that winter must soon give way to spring. The 

 daring hardihood of this little bulb seems surprising, even to 

 the florist. It is also subject to great variation in its first ap- 

 pearance, and would serve to indicate, in no faint degree, the 

 comparative advance of our springs. Thus, in 1837, it ap- 

 peared about the 13th of April, while the very next year gives 

 its appearance, in the same spot, the 24th of March. A na- 

 tive of Britain, it there flowers in January. One variety only 



