17 



extensive drouth had parched .the earth, and the usual 

 golden fields of autumn with their abundance, had 

 become barren and desolate, but even amid this sad 

 and afHictive dispehsation, it was resolved that the 

 eifort should be made to redeem the last pledge given 

 by the society, and the result showed that there really 

 existed no great cause for apprehension. It was true 

 the earth had not produced her usual abundance — that 

 the golden fruit did not present her usual yield — that 

 the bloom of the flowers had not come forth fully for 

 the want of the gentle dew, and fertilising rains ; but 

 still there was an abundance, sufficiently promising 

 for our wants, as well as for exhibiting the finest and 

 most luxuriant speciniens, both of fruits and flowers, 

 which were useful not merely to interest alone the 

 casual observer of beauty, but also for the higher pur- 

 pose of comparsion and classification. It would be 

 useless at this time to recount or particularise all that 

 this exhibition displayed, but it may be well to remark, 

 that it contained a table over seventy feet long and 

 nine wide, with over five hundred speciniens of the 

 offering of Pomona : another large table filled with the 

 most choice varieties of hot house and hardy grapes, 

 some of the clusters weighing over five pouiids ; hun- 

 dreds of specimens of roses and daliahs; a large num- 

 ber of the most fanciful arranged bouquets ; as well as 

 a great variety of green and hot-house plants, with a 

 large display of vegetables, enibracing every variety 

 of the season. The plants, flowers and fruits were so 

 arranged, that not one object only preseiited the 



