Address delivered before the Horticultural society of Maryland, at its annual exhibition, June 6, 1839

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ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

OF

MARYLAND,
AT ITS

ANNUAL EXHIBITION, JUNE 6, 1839,

BY

ZACCHEUS COLLINS LEE, Esa.

BALTIMORE:

JOHN D. TOY; PRINTER.

1839.

4

BALTIMORE, June 8th, 1839.
Z. Coxuins Ler, Esa.

Dear Sir,—We have been appointed a committee by the Council of the
Horticultural Society of Maryland, to obtain from you a copy for publication,
of your very beautiful and eloquent oration, delivered before the members of
the Society on the evening of the 6th inst.

With many sentiments of regard and esteem, dear sir,
Yours very truly,
T. Epmonpson, JR.
Epwarp KurtTz. .

Josepu Kine, Jr.
Committee.

BALTIMORE, June 9th, 1839.
GENTLEMEN:

I received to-day your very polite letter, requesting a copy of the address
delivered by me before the Maryland Horticultural Society on the 6th ult.
Having ata short notice attempted, very imperfectly, to perform the pleas-
ing duty assigned to me, in your lovely festival of flowers, I now sub-
mit the address to you, claiming for it that indulgence which its demerits
require, and offering it only as a sincere expression of my opinions and best
wishes in behalf of your interesting Society. :

With sentiments of esteem and friendship, I am,
Very respectfully yours,

Z. Corytins LEE.
To T. Epmonpson, Jr. Esa.
Epwarp Kurtz, Esq.
JosEPH Kine, Jr. Esa.
Committee.

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ADDRESS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE

Marytanp HorricuLTURAL 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 ina 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.

2

6

The anniversaries of national disenthralment and
renown are stirring and patriotic in themselves—but
the very achievements they celebrate, have been
won by the blood of patriots and the sufferings of a
whole people—the laurel and the willow entwine
the chaplet on the hero’s brow; and many a tear
for the gallant dead, saddens the ‘flowing bowl’ in
which their deeds ‘are freshly remembered.’ In
other lands less favoured and free than our own, the
waving of banners—the falchion’s gleam, and the
roar of cannon, proclaim too often the sanguinary
triumph of power over civil liberty—and the proud
pageant is darkened by the retrospect of battles—the
sack of cities—the burning of villages and the flight
and massacre of thousands, before the conqueror’s
sword. Even in the earlier days of chivalry and
romance, with the tilt and the tournament where
was sung and commemorated,

‘Knighthood’s dauntless deed,

And beauty’s matchless eye’—
there, alas, so servile and degrading a barrier sepa-
rated the lord from the serf—that it robbed these
heroic jubilees of that freshness and attraction which
freedom alone bestows.

But this, your anniversary, simple and unosten-
tatious, though it be, is, compared with those, the
refreshing shower, and the balmy air, after the
thunder-cloud has burst, and the summer heat has
passed away. It is the union of all that is useful

7

with all that is beautiful—the rainbow of the fields,
displaying every colour and fraught with every sweet.

Surely then, if the smiles of heaven ever descend,
it must be upon a scene like this—for you have come
up here, the young, the beautiful, the aged, to be-
hold and adore the wisdom and benignity of Him,
whose wonderful works are now spread out before
us, and to whom human pageants are ‘as sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal,’ for ‘the lilies of the
valley are his, and Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.’

Upon an occasion of such unalloyed interest and
pleasure, it would ill become me to detain you with
any laboured or scientific dissertation, even had I
the ability or the time to do so: I therefore choose
rather to dwell on some of the more obvious ad-
vantages of your society, and enforce upon the public
attention—the claims it so irresistibly presents to
more genera! and zealous support.

The Maryland Horticultural Society was formed
in 1832, by a few gentlemen of taste and education,
who then determined to give to the long neglected
subject their attention; and among its officers and
members at that date, will be found several beloved
fellow citizens, now no more, associated with many
who are still its friends and patrons—they subse-
quently obtained an act of incorporation which in
its preamble declares the object to be an associa-
tion, ‘for the purpose of improving and encouraging

8

the science and practice of Horticulture, and of in-
troducing into the State, new species and varieties
of trees, fruits, plants, vegetables and flowers.’

The first annual exhibition was held in June, 1833,
and at this, its sixth anniversary, it presents to the
public the most cheering evidences of its beneficial
and successful progress:—To an increased list of
members, it has added and united by its own attrac-
tive pursuits, many of our admired and spirited
townswomen, whose zeal and devotion have already
imparted a charm and impulse to the Society not to
be resisted by the most selfish and obdurate Bene-
dict or misanthrope; while, apart from these attrac-
tions and resources, it is now giving life and energy
to innumerable cultivators of the soil, by awarding
weekly and annual premiums to the most enterprising
and successful among them, and thereby affording to
industry and taste a stimulus, and to Horticulture, a
prominent place among the sister arts—indeed the
present exhibition of flowers alone, might challenge
competition in our country, while the rapid improve-
ments manifested in the culture of fruits and vege-
tables since the Society’s foundation, will speak its
best eulogy: and the regret must now arise that, in
this our Baltimore, distinguished for the beauty and
moral loveliness of her daughters, and the valour
and public spirit of her sons, so many years should
have been suffered to elapse in which the culture of
the garden and the husbandry of the field (taught

9

us thirty years ago by the West Indian emigrant)
were without this great auxiliary and stimulant—
and that more regard and attention is not now
given to the Society.

Around us, and on every hand, our hills and val-
leys are blooming with the growth of almost every
plant and tree, and we are in our walks and rides
enchanted by the rich scenes which open from some
adjacent and once barren spot, where ‘emparadised
in flowers,’ the cottage of the Horticulturist peeps
forth to win the heart and gratify the eye.

Our markets too, in the abundance they offer and
the returns they make to the industrious and thrifty
farmer and gardener, will convince you, that interest
as well as pleasure, are moving onward hand in hand
in the diffusion and enlargement of the Society’s bene-
fits—while by its direct agency, every foot of ground
near our city, and landed property generally in its
neighbourhood, is rapidly enhanced in value, and
by being converted into gardens and rural retreats,
afford even to ‘the dull edge of sated appetite,’ some
luscious fruit, or early plant and vegetable, before
strangers to our boards—and then, the ornamental
irees which embosom so many cool sequestered coun-
try seats, where the invalid and man of business may
repair for renovation and repose—all proclaim with
most ‘miraculous organ’ the usefulness, and the ele-
gant and refined pleasures of Horticulture.

10

The great Roman orator declared in one of his
finest orations—that there was no better pursuit in
life—none more full of enjoyment or more worthy a
freeman, than agriculture; the same may be said of
the kindred art which gave birth to this Society : and
Lord Bacon, the great master of human learning, has
borne testimony to its value, in an essay on this sub-
ject, in which he describes Gardening and Horticul-
tural avocations, as the purest of human pleasures as
well as the greatest refreshments to the spirits of men;
and considers the perfection of this art, as the indica-
tion of a nation having attained the highest degree of
civilization and refinement.—He says in his quaint
language ‘when ages grow to civility and elegancy ;
men come to build stately, sooner than to garden
finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.’

The sacred volume also breathes throughout its
holy pages, the sanction and encouragement of rural
and innocent pursuits; and the Creator by placing
our first parents in a garden—a _ paradise—

«And place of rural charms and various views,

With groves whose rich trees wept odorous gum and balm,
Where flowers of all hues, and without thorn

The rose untended bloomed’—

seemed indeed to indicate the preference and favour
which the husbandman and gardener would ever
receive at his hand.

Profane history has brought down to us its mytho-
logy and civil rites, associated and invested with
fruits and flowers; and the song of the Bacchanal

1]

and the lute of Pan, tell of the clustering grape
and the overhanging bough. But the knowledge of
plants was then greatly limited, and few, very few
of the wonderful creations which modern botany
has since disclosed, were known or regarded.

The revelations of the Creator to the tenants of
Eden, doubtless discovered to them such productions
of the earth as were necessary to their sustenance ;
but the Bible only speaks of the three general divi-
sions of the vegetable world into the grass, the herb,
and the free, and Solomon, the most celebrated for
his botanical knowledge, enumerates particularly the
Mandrake, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Hyssop
that groweth on the wall, as most prominent in his
day.

For centuries afterwards, Botany was but the
humble hand-maiden of medicine and surgery;
hence we find the balm of Gilead extolled in Judea
as the panacea of all diseases, and of more inesti-
mable value than all our modern panaceas for the
assuaging of the ills that ‘flesh is heir to.’

The heroic age added little or nothing to the
preceding period, unless indeed the fabled gardens
of the Hesperides and Alcinous, in which Homer
has placed ‘the reddening apple, the luscious fig, the
glowing pomegranate, the juicy pear, the verdant
olive, and the bending vine, can be regarded as
bright exceptions—these being the offspring rather
of poetry than mother earth. |

12

From the days of Theophrastus to those of Pliny,
during an interval of nearly four hundred years,
there had been only enumerated about six hundred
plants, regarded more for their medicinal than nou-
ishing qualities, and the account we have of them is
very indistinct and unsatisfactory.—Following came
on the darker ages, in which the few known arts
of life shared the sad fate of civil liberty, leaving
to the world the discovery, by a few Moorish and
Arabian physicians, of one or two herbs—such as
Rhubarb and Senna, which are now recognized in
our materia medica.

The Roman Era, deriving as it did, its taste for
gardening from Greece, to the extent it had gone
there, opened a wider field to its cultivation. Nu-
merous beautiful passages in the Latin poets prove
the high estimation in which gardening was held
among the Romans.—Tacitus describes a palace built
by Nero, which was on a site laid out on the princi-
ples of modern gardening; he says, ‘the usual and
common luxuries of gold and jewels which adorned
this palace were not so much to be admired as
the fields, and lakes, and flowers, which here and
there opened in prospects before it. But it is to
modern times we must look for the revival and
creation of botany as a science.—Geesner, Haller,
and Linneus established for it a system of investi-
gation, by which thousands of new and rare pro-

13

ductions were added to the catalogue of Ceres and
Flora. These great high-priests of nature, reduced
at once, to fixed principles and invariable rules, the
study, and by the classification of plants according
to their natural affinities, demonstrated, that, like
man, their domestic life was regulated and sweeten-
ed by the presence of the gentler sex, and their
being depended upon constitutions and habits pe-
culiar to themselves.

In England, during the reigns of Henry and
Elizabeth, much of the taste and natural beauty of
the gardens of Rome were lost sight of, and substi-
tuted by an artificial and grotesque deformity, which
maintained for many years, and which, by torturing
the box, the yew, and evergreens, into the shape
of beasts and other whimsical forms, degraded the
standard of horticulture—so that many of the Eng-
lish gardens of that period are described, as being
adorned with yew trees in the shape of giants—
Noah’s ark cut in holly—St. George and the dragon,
in box—cypress lovers—laureline bears, and all the
race of root-bound monsters which flourished, and
looked tremendous around the edges of every grass
plat.*

But a better spirit soon succeeded, and the works
and philosophy of Dr. William Turner, the father
of English botany and gardening, gave a right direc-

*See the eloquent address of Mr. Poinsett, in 1836, before the Horticul-
fural Society of South Carolina.

3

14

tion to its pursuit, and added countless treasures.
to the researches of his predecessor—and by the
innumerable varieties of shrubs and flowers, to which
he gave ‘a local habitation and a name,’ the sea-
girt island became the home and nursery for almost
every tree and plant; and it is now to the annals
of English agriculture and gardening, that we look
for the most valuable improvements in the useful
and ornamental departments of horticulture.

The science of botany, being thus founded solely
on the natural affinities and fixed laws of vegetation,
the great masters to whom I have referred, raised
it at once from being the obscure handmaid of medi-
cine, to be the most enlarged and delightful study to
which the head and heart of man could be devoted.
The poorest plant and the most unobtrusive flower
that ‘blushed unseen,’—under their hands in a mo-
ment, unfolded the mysteries of its being, and the
hidden lore of nature. For if the flowers on the
mountains, and in the valleys, are the alphabet of
angels, with which they have written secret and
divine truths upon the hill-tops, how doubly attrac-
tive must become a study, which shall disclose the
loves of those angels, or the higher destiny of man.

Standing as we do, at an immeasurable distance
from the olden time, living in an age and land where
all who have the spirit to be free, or the virtue to be
just, may become public benefactors; how strong
are the calls which duty and interest, in every art

15.

and department of life, make on us, to be active and
beneficent in our efforts. If we cast our eyes over
the world, its past and present condition, how infi-
nitely exalted appears the physical and intellectual
resources of our generation.

The face of nature too, is more prolific and inte-
resting, and exhibits ten thousand beauties and bene-
fits, unknown to past ages.—The history, therefore,
of the vegetable world, written as it now is, in every
language, and on every green field, developed then
but little compared with the present hour, in which
we have assembled to celebrate its triumphs, and to
behold, by the light of truth and christianity, what
was denied to the darker eras of man.

But the great temple cf nature, though thus open-
ed, is not explored, beyond us there are many mean-
dering streams and flowery fields to be traced, and
hidden treasures to be discovered.—The promised
Jand rises in bright perspective, and our children
must finish what has been commenced by us,—
kindling brighter lights, and erecting nobler altars
to nature and religion.

What a theatre for horticultural effort does our
own country afford? The vegetation of the United
States is as various as its climate and soil.—In the
Floridas grow the majestic palm—the orange—the
cotton—the indigo, and the sugar-cane. In the
Carolinas, the eye of the traveller is charmed with
the beauty and grandeur of the forest trees-—the

16

ever-green oak—the various species of pine—wal-
nut, and plane tree—the splendid tulip-—the curious
cypress, and the superb magnolia. is

While the oaks, the firs, and the chestnuts of the
middle and northern states, afford to the naturalist a
rich scene for investigation and study.

Already ten species of the walnut are distinguished
for their use and beauty, in the soil and in manufac-
tures, and as many of the maple, the spruce, the
hickory, and the larch~most of them now trans-
planted to our gardens, and public pleasure grounds,
are the objects of daily converse and admiration.

There, too, is the giant sycamore, the king of our
western forests, exhibiting in its growth, a fit em-
blem of the vigorous and hardy race, who people the
young, but glorious west.—It rises, as Mr. Washing-
ton Irving has described it, in the most graceful
form, with vast spreading lateral branches, covered
with bark of a brilliant white—These hundred white
arms interlacing with the other green forest trees,
form one of the most striking traits of American
scenery.—A tree of this kind, near Marietta, mea-
sured fifteen feet and a half in diameter, and it is
said, that Judge Tucker, of Virginia, obtained a
section of such a tree—put a roof to it, and fur-
nished it as a study, which contained a stove, bed,
and table,—making a comfortable apartment.

Horticulture is domesticating the birch—the elm—
the acacia, and the poplar, and beautifying our gar-

\7

dens with the magnolia—the holly—the almond, and
the Catawba, and many others, whose existence was
almost unknown to us ten years ago.

Some of the most luscious fruits we now prize and
cultivate, are strangers to our soil_—Modern horti-
culture, within the last two centuries, has domesti-
cated them.—The fig was brought from Syria, the
citron from Medea, the peach from Persia, the pome-
granate from Africa, apricots from Epirus, apples,
pears, and plums from Armenia, and cherries from
Pontus—to Rome they first passed—then to Europe,
and with our progenitors, many of them became the
pilgrims of freedom in America.

Public gardens of any note and extent, owe also
their establishment to modern times.—-The first
known in Europe, was that of Lorenzo de Medici,
in Florence: afterwards, the celebrated botanic gar-
den of Padua was planted, and flourished in 1533.
That of Bologna was also founded by the liberality
of Pope Pius the VI. then followed that of Flo-
rence, erected by the Grand Duke; since which
period they have steadily increased, and there is
now one to be found in almost every city of Italy.
The botanic garden of Leyden was established in
1577, forty-four years after that of Padua, which it
surpassed in number and variety of plants—in 1663,
the catalogue of this garden numbered 1,104 species.
And in Boerhaave’s time, who, when professor of
botany there, neglected nothing to augment its riches,

18

it contained 6,000 plants; nearly all the beautiful
flowers from the Cape of Good.Hope, which now
adorn our gardens, were first cultivated there. The
first botanic garden in France, was -established at
Montpelier, in 1597; but the Garden of Plants at
Paris was afterwards founded, in 1620, by Louis
XIII.—this noble institution has been greatly en-
larged by successive monarchs, and is now regarded
as the most scientific garden, and the best. botanic
school in Europe.

A taste for flowers is said to have been introduced
into England, by the Flemish emigrants, who fled
(as did those of St. Domingo to our state,) to that
country, to escape the cruelties of the Duke of Alva,
in 1567. The first botanic garden in England was
afterwards founded at Oxford; and the royal gar-
dens at Kew, were begun about the middle of the
eighteenth century, by Frederick, Prince of Wales,
father of George the Third, and now contain a rich
and extensive collection of exotics, equalled, how-
ever, if not surpassed by those in the botanic garden
at Liverpool; an institution founded by the influence
and efforts of Mr. Roscoe, who established it in
1800. :

In our country we know of no extensive establish-
ment of this description—that commenced by Dr.
David Hosack, of New York, has been suffered to go
to decay by the government of the State, who pur-
chased it from the learned and enterprising proprie-

19

tor.—Here, in Maryland, there is as yet no public
garden of the kind—but our Society is we trust
awakening public attention to the subject.

A taste is now springing up amongst us—and many
private gardens beautifully represented here to-night,
attest the success of individual efforts. The field
is before us—labourers are wanted—its limits are the
confines of our republic.—Look to the south, clothed
at this time in a garb of rural splendour, to which
its tropical flowers and brilliant evergreens, give
a surpassing lustre.-—There alone flourishes the live
oak, that tree, which upon the ocean is the bulwark
of our land and the boast of our prowess. How
irresistible and magical is the march of improvement,
and the triumph of culture and art? Let the rover
or naturalist seek some cool sequestered spot by the
sources of the Missouri or the Mississippi, and
pleased with the bright and lively rill which dances
from rock to rock, to the murmuring cadence of its
own music, watch and follow it as it steals under the
osier and the vine with gentle wing till he finds it;
the majestic river upon whose bank wealth builds his
palace—science his temple, and religion her sacred
fane; could his wonder be greater or his joy more
intense than ours at the triumphs of art and re-
finement over the rudeness of uncultured nature?
Methinks the progenitors of many who hear me,
once sought the fresh breeze of the evening, and
plucked the scented wild flower on this very spot,

20

now covered and adorned by edifices of taste and
splendour, and crowded with monuments of civiliza-
tion.—So rapid and imperceptible therefore are the
improvements of the great age, that if we would pre-
serve around us at all the pristine charms of hill
and dale, of wild flowers and native forests, it must
be by horticulture and in our gardens.—For the
hammer and the noise of the busy multitude, and the
axe of the emigrant, and the sweep of commerce,
and the sister arts, are onward with the velocity of
our rail roads, clearing the way and settling the
waste places, for more enduring power, and ex-
tended wealth than the woods and wilds of our
native soil can afford.

Our national resources, too, physical and political;
and the giant strides of our people, already proclaim,
even beyond the Mississippi, the sway of civil insti-
tutions, and the glories of freedom: hurried before
their resistless march, the red man and his once
countless tribes, is flying from his hunting grounds
and council fires—and his lion heart and eagle eye
has cowered before the victorious arm of the white
man. |

Scarce two hundred_years have rolled away, since
the rock of Plymouth, and the heights of Jamestown
were pressed by pilgrims’ feet, and consecrated to
human rights.—-Now twenty-six commonwealths,
bounded by the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico,
are before us, united by a common bond, and flour-

21

ishing under the same bright banner, and crowded
with upwards of fifteen millions of freemen.— What
a spectacle for the world to admire! what a cause
of self-gratulation to us?

The ‘May Flower,’ laden with the seeds of liberty,
touched then with drooping sails a savage and in-
hospitable shore—now, from the same strand, the
moving palaces of steam and the countless ships of
commerce, depart and arrive between cities of as-
tonishing wealth and population. I repeat it that
now is the time for our most active exertions in the
noble cause of Agriculture, and its patron, Horticul-
ture—if we desire to keep pace with the wide
spreading manufactures and commerce of our union.

To the farmer and agriculturist is offered a climate
and soil more fertile, varied and healthy than any
under the sun, combining the heat of the tropics
with the temperatures of the north and west, and
inviting him to eultivate every variety of produce:
while the growth of distinct and inexhaustible staples,
presents what is no where to be found under the same
government, agricultural resources of priceless value,
which can in no event compete with and oppose each
other, in the same foreign or domestic market.

The south; opulent in the mimic snow of the
cotton and the golden harvests of the rice field, binds
the planter to his soil by the strong tie of interest,
and makes his staple the very life’s blood of ex-

change and commerce; while the northern, western
4

22

and middle States, by their grain and the culture
of tobacco, form a vast store-house and granary for
domestic aud exporting uses, unlike the granaries of
Rome, inexhaustible, and not filled from plundered
provinces.

I might dilate upon these animating motives to
exertion, which our favoured position and resources
so strongly urge—but I forbear, pausing only to add,
that if the cause of agriculture and the claims of this
society have no recommendation from considerations
like these, there is yet one precious and irresistible
motive, to be found in the opinions and practice of
him, the mention of whose name raises a throb of
gratitude in every heart that loves liberty —Among
the letters preserved and published of the immortal
Washington, is one addressed by him in 1782, to
Mr. Young, an English horticulturist, in which the
Father of his country, uses the following language:

‘Agriculture in the field and garden has ever been
among the most favourite of my amusements, though
I never have possessed much skill in the art, and
nine years, total inattention to it, has added nothing
to a knowledge which is best understood from prac-
tice.’ He then desires his correspondent to send
him the following horticultural items :

‘A little of the best kind of cabbage seed for the
field culture—twenty pounds of the best turnip
seed—ten bushels of sanfoin seed—eight bushels of
winter vetches—two bushels of rye grass seed, and

23

fifty pounds of best clover seed.? What a touch-
ing illustration of the simple habits and practical
sense of this illustrious man.—At the time this letter
was penned, he had just returned victorious from
the revolutionary struggle to the shades of Mount
Vernon ;—we there find him turning from the voice
of praise and the blaze of military glory to his farm
and garden—with the same fondness with which the
infant seeks the maternal bosom, and in the unosten-
tatious amusements and healthful exercises of his
fields, becoming the first American farmer, as he
had proved himself the greatest hero and general on
the tented plain.

What a lesson and rebuke should this incident
convey to the noisy pride and bustling littleness of
some of the miscalled great men of our day.—To the
placeman and demagogue, even the garden of Mount
Vernon, blooming under the eye and hand of Wash-
ington, could afford no charm or solace for the loss
of power or emolument—ithese serve their country
but to serve themselves.—Marius in his defeated hour,
sighed amid the ruins of Carthage, and the impe-
rial exile wept upon a barren rock.—Washington, |
whether at the head of armies or guiding the desti-
nies of his country, was the same exalted character ;
simple in his tastes, manly and noble in all the rela-
tions of life——In him education found a patron,
religion and virtue a model and support, and agri-
culture its most distinguished benefactor.—So happily

24

combined were his sentiments, taste and principles,
that in private as in public life, his example will
descend to unnumbered generations, as the brighest
ever bequeathed by man to man. |

Imagination might carry those of us who have
visited the hero’s tomb, to that sequestered and
beautiful garden with its nursery of rare exotics and
tropical fruits—ihe classic arrangements of its box-
wood and hawthorn hedge, and the simple but chaste
display of every flower and plant which wealth or
fancy could procure.—-There upon this seat sat
Washington when the storm and battle was over,
and refreshed his spirit and elevated his thoughts
by the culture and contemplation of his garden—
beside him was her, the chosen and beloved consort
and companion of his life—like him in the noble
but gentler attributes of her mind, fitted to be the
sharer of his glory and repose.—Around them bloom-
ed the gifts of every clime, from the rose and fragrant
coffee shrub of Java to the night budding Cereus
of Mexico.

The seat still remains, but the patriot sleeps at
the foot of that garden by the side of his fond asso-
ciate and exalted partner,—wild flowers and the
evergreen are blooming over them, in token of the
renewal and immortality of the glorious dead.—And
when summer comes—there the birds sing sweetly,
and like angels’ voices, do they tell of happiness.
harmony and peace.

25

The sculptured column, and proud mausoleum
might (and should) adorn that spot—but in the
scene as nature’s hand has left it—in the murmurs
of the breeze, the majestic flow of the Potomac, and
the solemn stillness of the grove, broken only by the
wild bird’s note—above all, in the yet unfaded and
unaltered walks of that garden of Washington there
is a memorial, which the ‘storied urn or animated
bust could never give.’ It is the pathos and truth
of nature.—This theme is carrying me beyond my
purpose—you will pardon the digression—I must
pause.

Before us this evening is spread out a rich ban-
quet—the strawberry and cherry,—the more substan-
tial offerings for the kitchen are here, also, presenting
a rotundity and condition which an alderman might
envy ; among them there doubtless is, that talisman of
fortune—the golden fleece of the vegetable world—I
allude to the morus multicaulis, for the culture of
which, it is feared, all things else may be abandoned ;
so warm 1s the fever which its prosperous fortunes
have excited, that, it is said, ‘a loving swain in one
of the fertile counties on the Eastern Shore, was
breathing to his lady-love the most empassioned vows,
and had put the solemn and interesting question,
upon a favourable answer to which his happiness
depended, when she, with much enthusiasm, replied
by asking him another question, do you grow the

26

morus multicauis? Oh! no, he exclaimed, only
beautiful flowers and roses for you.’ Alas! simple
youth, this answer was fatal to his hopes, and the
morus multicaulis prevailed over Jove. Horticulture,
in addition to this, is colonizing trees and shrubs,
for the purposes of shade and ornament for the
bowers of love.—Should it not then command the
affections and aid of the fair?

There are finally to be drawn from the reflections
of this anniversary, many lessons and benefits, calcu-
lated to warm the heart with gratitude to Him, who
is the giver of all things; and above all, there are
opened, by the study of this volume of nature,
sources of unfailing joy and contentment. So order-
ed is the economy and wisdom of heaven, that this
lovely season of the year,—the precursor of Ceres,
and the prophet of abundant harvest, by its regular
return teaches ‘desultory man, studious as he is, of
change,’ that here is an invariable and immutable law,
stamped upon every plant that grows, and every bud
that opens, alike incapable of change and deteriora-
tion, and instructs the child of adversity, who has
been left alone, scathed like the pine upon the moun-
tain’s top, by the lightning and the tempest, that there
is a recuperative principle in the mind, shadowed
forth most beautifully by the reviving tree and the
budding flower, which the breath of heaven shall
awaken to life, beauty, and immortality.—Emblems
of the christian’s hope, which burns brighter as the

27

clouds gather, and his spirit is departing, and his
heart becoming cold. 7

By assiduous efforts and gentle care do we not,
when this lovely season is gone, behold how culture
and the artificial warmth of the conservatory and the
green-house keep a perennial spring about us amid
the snows of winter, and the window and boudoir
of woman become the home of the dahlia and the
rose, living and giving out their incense to her tender
mercies, when all around is death; or blooming in
unwonted splendour among her soft tresses, telling
of the kind, gay girl, the fond and loving mother,
whose hand has watered them, and beneath whose
smile their buds have expanded into life.

The sentiment and morality of flowers are among
the most attractive of their charms; who does not
feel full often the pure power of the teachings which
these little moralists declare. The rose is a legend
of romance, and its history, whether in the bower of
love, or embroidered on the banners of civil war, is
a history of the heart—The rose of Sharon, and
the lilies of Damascus, were sung by the waters of
Israel, while poetry and religion have associated and
embalmed it with all the most sacred of their rights.

In the festive hall, where the dance, and song,
and music prevail, it is the companion and emblem
of the young and joyous.—The bridal wreath and
the nuptial altar find in ifs purity and fragrance,

28

though but ‘the perfume and suppliance of an hour,’
a sentiment congenial with the brightness and bre-
vity of the passing scene. |

And, oh, with what unsearchable and deep love
does the youthful mother place i in the garland of
her first born; and should the nursling be too early
snatched from her bosom, with what fond but melan-
choly pleasure will she oft times turn with moistened
eye from the memory of the cherished one, to the rose
bud or the flower, as the remembrancer of its loveli-
ness and beauty. Think you there is then no truth
in all this? To the pensive and uncorrupted mind
can there bea pleasure more refined than the culture
of these sweet earth-born innocents, amid the shades
and serenity of the garden and the groves?

The Prince de Ligné, who was the companion of
monarchs, and surrounded by the splendour of
courts, derived his chief enjoyment from the culti-
vation of his graden, and with enthusiasm has said,
‘would that I could warm the whole world with my
taste for gardening; it appears to me impossible that
a bad man can possess it; there is no virtue that I
do not imagine in him who loves to speak of, and to
make gardens; fathers of families, inspire your chil-
dren with a love of gardening and flowers.’ This is
the language of a prince, and the testimony of a
generous and exalted spirit.

There is, besides, in the culture of the garden, a
religion silently but truly taught, to which meditation

29

gives the most consoling tone; the conflict of exclu-
sive and intolerant opinions are there unfelt and
unheard, but we hold converse with nature, and
from her flowery lap raise our eyes and hearts in
adoration to Him, who,

‘Not content with every food of life

To nourish man ; by kind illusions

Of the wondering sense, hath made all nature
Beauty to his eye and musie to his ear.’

How cooling to the chafed brow and the care-
worn spirit is the copse-wood shade and the rural
walk? What memories of happy days and well-
beloved companions crowd upon the garden’s con-
templative hour, bringing back to age its golden
morn, its blithesome boyhood: if a father or a mother
hath departed from us, the haunts they loved, the
flowers they nursed, the paths they trod, summon us
back to all we owe them, and all we have lost in

them:
‘Soft as the memory of buried love,
Pure as the prayer that childhood wafts above,’

come back to us from these interviews with nature,
our best days and our most cherished affections.

The stars have been called the poetry of heaven,
but may we not with equal truth turn to these
flowers as the poetry of earth, speaking as they do
to us of peace and good will among men.

Rank, power, and wealth, the arm of the warrior,
and the tongue of the sage, have seldom blessed
their possessors; and we are called too often to de-

5

30

plore in this and other lands, the evils which have

resulted from the ‘fears of the brave and the follies |

of the wise.’

How touchingly beautiful and sublime are the
pictures of those primitive days, when under their
own vines and fig trees, the babbling brook at their
feet, and the bleating and spotless flock around them,
the shepherds of Israel poured forth their morning
song of praise to Him who made the meadows to
nourish, and the trees to shade them, with what
fervour did they exclaim, ‘The Lord is our shep-
herd we shall not want, he maketh us to lie down
in green pastures and leadeth us beside the still
waters.’ The altars of christianity never burned
with a purer incense than this: and are we not then
invoked now to realize from the pursuits of this
Society the primitive charms and excellence which
they impart?

Peace and abundance cover our land—in others
less happy and exalted, some flower or shrub is
the household and tutelary emblem and_ watch-
word of national honour. The lily of France and
the rose of Burgundy, have encountered the thistle
and the shamrock on the bloody field, or interwoven
in peace become the olive branch and pledge of
union and friendship—with us as yet, not one of
the many beautiful productions of our soil is the
badge of American freedom.—And why should it

not be, like the song which animates in the fight—

ee) zs eee Poe, -

31

let us also point to some ever present and blooming
token of cur land, which will meet us in the field,
cheer us in absence, and delight us every where,
and which to the dying patriot’s eye shall revive
the recollection of his home and country—

‘Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere ; celumque

Aspicit, et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.’

To fix then upon this emblem is a task I commend
to our fair countrywomen, who should indeed,
present it asa gift from the beautiful to the brave,
with which to return victorious, or return no more.

These are the refined charms of Horticulture,
and thus is your Society recommended :—At this
celebration it invites men of all conditions in life to
come forward here, in Maryland, and devote not
their gold and silver, but their leisure and taste to
the most interesting cause and the most delightful
recreation.— The motives, the land we inhabit, the
resources of our people, and the innate value and
purity of the pursuit itself, have been alluded to,
and all call on us to lend our influence to its pro-
motion.—The tired and worn down citizen shall be
refreshed by it, for to green fields and healthful
exercises we introduce him while living; and
there is a spot preparing for him, when dead, almost
within sight of this hall, a place of repose,—a city of
silence, which by the enterprise of many connected
with this Society, shall ere long realize the prophet’s
vision that made paradise the home of the dead.

32

Beneath the fragrant birch and the refreshing
evergreen shall there repose the departed, with birds
to sing over their graves, and the sweetest wild
flowers to bloom in earnest of the spirit’s destiny.—
Horticulture is doing this, then by all its pleasures,
by its usefulness and innocency, we do again invoke
you to become its patrons and friends.

The studies of the closet and the feverish pursuits
of life, wear down the body and corrode the spirit ;
but here is a pursuit full of beauty and freshness,
peaceful and lovely are its ways, pure and unconta-
minated is the cup of its joys; its study and culture
will assuage anger, moderate ambition and sanctify
love, and raising the heart from objects of temporary
interest, place it on those of eternal hope—keep
with us and about us the bloom and fragrance of
life’s weary journey, and make us wiser and better
in our day and generation.

TT

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