94 (Assembly 



Altogether, the exhibition of Fruit was superb, and a source of 

 great gratification to all who beheld it ; more especially is this true 

 of the large and exceedingly fine display of the luscious Peach and 

 Nectarine, and the imposing show of Grapes, the large and tempting 

 clusters of which were a theme of delighted admiration to every 

 beholder. 



I shall now take a glance at the Flowers^ those loved objects, over 

 which I so delight to linger. The weather at the opening of the 

 Fair was most unpropitious for the development of these delicate ob- 

 jects, and I was not a little apprehensive that the display would prove 

 to be something of a failure ; but the fury of the storm abated in 

 time to avert so deep a mortification, and the genial rays of the sun 

 brought out the Flowers in all their gorgeous attire. Thus it often 

 happens, that what at first seemed, to our finite vision, only fraught 

 with evil and misfortune, turns out, in the end, to be full of the ut- 

 most beneficence. A wise Providence reigns over all. 



I have no desire to exaggerate in any particular the character or 

 merits of the exhibition which has just closed ; but I must neverthe- 

 less, in justice to the commendable zeal evinced by the exhibitors, 

 claim for the display of Flowers the high distinction of being, with- 

 out the semblance of exception, by far the greatest that has ever been 

 seen on any one occasion in New-York. I do not mean alone that 

 it was the largest, but also decidedly the best in every sense of the 

 word 3 and I claim for it in some particulars the great merit of being 

 of a higher character than any for exhibition. I have strong hopes 

 that in a very few years our exhibitions of Flowers will reach the 

 high standard already attained by our Boston and Philadelphia 

 friends. Too mu-ch praise cannot be bestowed upon that spirit of 

 emulation which enabled us to keep up a blaze of Floral beauties 

 during the whole four weeks' continuance of the Fair. For this happy 

 result we owe exhibiters a large meed of praise, and I take infinite 

 pleasure in bestowing it. This is about all that they get to reward 

 them for their labor and losses, and I desire that they should receive 

 a full measure of it. The taste for the cultivation of Flowers is no 

 doubt increasing among us, but its progress is painfully slow. This 

 may be attributed in a great measure to a want of sufficient and 



