ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the 



Maryland Horticultural Society : 



At your request I appear this evening to dis- 

 charge a pleasing duty, and offer with you on this 

 fragrant and pure, shrine of nature, the homage and 

 gratitude, which these her gifts of fruit and flower 

 demand. 



From the engrossing and dull pursuits of artificial 

 life — from the marts of commerce and the feverish 

 paths of politics and ambition, we here solicit all 

 ages and classes to unite in a festival and taste a cup 

 unmingled and unembittered by selfishness or pride. 



Had I consulted my own just estimate of the 

 occasion and my unfitness to make it interesting or 

 useful, the duty I now perform should have been 

 declined, but there was something so refreshing and 

 beautiful in the associations of your society — that I 

 yielded rather to instinct and feeling than to judg- 

 ment, and determined to throw myself upon the 

 same kind opinion and indulgence which had called 

 me to its discharge. 

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