the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, under the leadership of Gen. Henry A. S. Dearborn, who was elected its first president. Col. Wilder was one of the noble band that founded this society. At its eleventh annual meeting, in 1840, he was elected the fourth president of the society, and was annually re-elected to the same office for eight years. During his presidency, much from his personal exertions, the property of the society increased from a small amount to nearly forty thousand dollars. Through his leadership, the old Horticultural Hall in School Street was erected, which was for so many years an ornament to the city. It was a brilliant period in the history of the society. Its several festivals in Faneuil Hall and elsewhere were attended by the talent and élite of the country, and constituted gala-days of each year.

It was chiefly through the exertions of Col. Wilder as one of the committee that separated the society from Mount-Auburn Cemetery, which it really had the honor of founding, that the committee agreed on the terms of separation. He was the pacificator, and the proposer of those favorable terms for the society which were finally accepted, and which have been its chief source of wealth, and which must greatly increase those riches in all time to come. As a memorial, Mr. Charles O. Whitmore has presented a fine marble bust of Mr. Wilder to the society, which now adorns the Library Hall, and will forever be a monument of his disinterested labors.* Col. Wilder is still an active member of the society; has been one of its Executive Committee for twenty-six years, and of the Finance Committee for eighteen.

But Mr. Wilder has been more widely known at home and abroad as the President of the American Pomological Society for the past eighteen years, a position that he still occupies. He and such men as Andrew J. Downing, and men of like tastes, had long considered the formation of such a society as important to the interests of American pomology. Accordingly, in July, 1848, he drew up a circular, calling a meeting of fruit-growers and horticulturists in the city of New York on the following October. This was signed by committees of several States, Mr. Wilder's name being first, as in the case of the call for the convention that formed the United-States Agricultural Society.

The Horticulturist for 1863, pp. 163, 164

Col. Wilder has delivered addresses before it in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Rochester; as well as a eulogy on his lamented. friend, Mr. Andrew J. Downing. When it is considered that these addresses, and many others before various societies and on numerous festive occasions, were written and delivered by a person with little more than a common-school education; that they were prepared in intervals snatched from the grasp of his mercantile profession, in connection with the profession of a horticulturist, — the industry, tact, learning, and genius of the orator appear quite remarkable.

We have space for but two or three brief extracts from Col. Wilder's addresses. In an address before the American Pomological Society,* he said,

"Our trees - from the opening bud to the golden harvest; from the laying-off of their gay autumnal livery, and during their rest in winter's shroud, waiting a resurrection to a new and superior life eloquent preachers, proclaiming to our inmost soul,

The Hand that made us is divine.'

are all

Taught by their counsels, who does not admire the wisdom, perfection, and beauty of this fair creation? the tiny bud, incased in coats of mail so that the rude blasts may not visit it too roughly, rivalling in its mechanism the human eye, and destined to perpetuate its own species distinctive as the soul of man; the enamelled blossom, unfolding her virgin bosom to the warm embrace of vernal air, bespangling the orchard with starry spray, scarcely less beautiful than the glittering host of night, dancing in rainbow hues, and flinging on the breeze a fragrance richer than the spices of Ceylon's isles, sweet harbinger of bountiful harvest; the luscious fruits, God's best gift to man, save woman, — the melting pear, rough or polished rind, with sweetest, honeyed flavor; the burnished apple, tempting human taste, from the mother of our race to her last fair daughter; the royal grape, clustering beneath its bower of green, making glad the heart of man; the brilliant cherry, suffused with loveliest tints of rose and white, or dyed in deepest incarnadine; the velvet peach, mantled with beauty's softest blush, and vying with the oriency of the morning; the delicious

See Address for 1858, p 24

plum, veiled with silvery bloom, over robes of azure, purple, or cloth of vegetable gold." And more of equal beauty and eloquence.

In the course of his address before the same society at Boston, in 1862, Mr. Wilder uttered these characteristic words: "Oh! let me be remembered in some beautiful flower, some graceful tree, some luscious fruit. Oh, yes! far better than storied monument or sculptured urn, let me be remembered as one who labored to adorn and improve the earth, to promote the pleasure and welfare of those who are to follow me."

At the Exhibition of the United-States Agricultural Society in 1855, Ex.-Gov. King of New York remarked, in reference to Mr. Wilder, "I have served with the president of this society; and I am here to say, that I know no abler, more efficient officer for this distinguished post. At home and abroad, the same man, the same power, the same vigor, the same intellect, are brought to bear on the great cause we are here assembled to celebrate."

It is Col. Wilder's custom to rise early, to devote the morning to books, and to the superintendence of his garden and nursery; the middle of the day to mercantile business in Boston; and the evening to his family and study.

His

During his leisure hours, he has filled several large folio volumes with his own sketches, delineations, and descriptions of fruits proved under his personal inspection. This has been the work of a long life. He continues these investigations daily; and it is to be hoped that the public may have the benefit of these studies. He has made the pear a speciality. collection of pears embraces every variety, foreign and native, of note; to which he adds the novelties of every year. Having a correspondence with the most distinguished pomologists of Europe and America, he receives annually all such as are worthy of notice. His collection embraces twentyfive hundred bearing-trees; and he has had, during his life, more than eight hundred varieties of the pear on his grounds. Among plants, the camellia has been his speciality. He has had many hundreds of varieties, thousands of plants, and more than a thousand seedlings, some of which bear the names of himself and family, which he secured by hybridization, of which he has given a published account.

Enough has been written to give the chief points in Col. Wilder's life. He has performed the work of several ordinary men during a long life,

and he has been eminent in all that he has undertaken. He has great ability as a presiding officer; and has often been called upon, not only to be the president of several societies, but to occupy the chair on special occasions; as at the first meeting of persons called to consult in reference to what has now become the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of which he is a vice-president; at the celebration in Dorchester in 1855, it being the two hundred and twenty-fifth year from the landing of the first settlers, when Hon. Edward Everett delivered the oration; at the second festival of the Sons of New Hampshire, when he succeeded Mr. Webster as president of the association; and on occasions previously mentioned.

Had Mr. Wilder received a liberal education, and become devoted to either of the learned professions, he would have attained to eminence. Without the advantages of a public education, he has written more that will live, and has exerted more influence in the world, than the majority of those who have enjoyed the highest advantages in schools and universities; and he stands out as one of the best examples of a self-made man. His chief influence has been exerted as a merchant, as an agriculturist, and especially as a horticulturist; while as a gentleman of benevolence, of public spirit, of ardent patriotism, of unblemished morals, he has made his influence felt far and wide. His earnest and well-spoken addresses have been listened to by hundreds of thousands of his countrymen, and in print they have been read by millions. He has suffered recently from ill health, but is now convalescent, and, it is hoped, will live long in the enjoyment of health and happiness.

We cannot better conclude than in the words of Gov. Bullock at the late Exhibition in Dedham: "I meet here to-day the members of this useful and prosperous society of Norfolk, sitting and rejoicing under the presidency of one who has applied the results of well-earned commercial fortune to the development of the capacities of the earth, so largely and so liberally, that, in every household and at every fireside in America where the golden fruit of summer and autumn gladdens the side-board or the hearth-stone, his name, his generosity, and his labors, are known and honored."*

⚫ The excellent likeness of Col. Wilder which we present is from a fine steel engraving, formerly executed in connection with his services while President both of the American Pomological and the UnitedStates Agricultural Societies.

FLOWERS OF MAY.

IN the last number, we chronicled, in their due succession, the opening of the hardy flowers of April,- such of them as bloomed in our sight last spring. Now we continue the record with the flowers of May.

We begin with a native of our woods, reclaimed and domesticated. A bed about four feet in diameter, covered with the broad green foliage of Trillium grandiflorum, on which rest more than a hundred triangular