first is merely a list of the flowers and plants exhibited, and the persons honoured with dedicated groups. But it derives no sligh degree of interest from the circumstance of our finding, in company with his majesty the king of the Netherlands, and many other high dignitaries, the names of a number of our countrymen, to whom the same compliment is paid. During the conferences between the American and British commissioners, which terminated in the treaty of Ghent, several of the gentlemen attached to the American legation became honorary members of this society; and it is highly gratifying to observe the great estimation in which they seem to have been held. Thus to the king of the Netherlands the votive group is formed of, 1. the Strelitzia Regina, 2. the Pyrus Japonica, and, in almost immediate succession, to Mr. Henry Clay (the speaker of the house of Representatives), 1. the Kalmia Glauca, 2. the Kamellia Japonica. To Mr. Gallatin, 1. the Cytisus purpureus, 2. the phylica capitala; and to Mr. Adams, 1. the Aletroemeria ligtu, and the Erica ignescens. We also find the name of Mr. Muhlenbergh, of Lancaster, among a number of dukes, counts, and barons. And to the memory of the late Mr. Bayard a beautiful and affecting tribute. By an unanimous order of the society, a cypress was placed in the saloon, to which this epitaph was attached. D. M. JACOBO BAYARD, tueretur, dum natale solum dulcesque et uxorem et liberas quos multum amabat Socio de se bene merito hanc cupressum Functa inani sed testante luctum munere grata et memor dicat vovetque Societas regia Georgicorum et botanophilorum Gandavensis VI. die mensis Februarii, anni 1816. The other, entitled by its author the Bouquet, is an oration or address, delivered to the society by a gentleman, to whom, for his liberal and favourable opinion, this country is under obligations. We subjoin a translation of the whole of it, because we wish our readers to know how kindly the state of science in America is, at least sometimes, spoken of on the other side of the Atlantic. The eloquent eulogium of Mr. Cornelissen on the much lamented Mr. Bayard is in the highest degree interesting and gratifying to our national feelings. He has justly appreciated that distinguished man; and the partiality of Mr. Cornelissen towards him and this country in general, all Americans must be pleased to learn, and anxious to reciprocate. The Bouquet (except the title-page) reads in English thus: REPORT, Followed by certain propositions, read and adopted in the meeting of the society, the 13th of October, 1816. By N. Cornelissen, member of the society, honorary secretary of the Royal Academy of Design, and of the Royal Society of the Fine Arts at Ghent. GENTLEMEN-I am confident that you will receive this report, and my propositions, with that kind attention which you always give to your fellow-members, when they speak of the interests of the science whose advancement is so dear to you; but I have a further claim to your indulgence: I shall make you acquainted with your new patrons. Our late president, Mr. J. X. Vande Woestyne, whose memory we venerate, was pleased, in one of his annual discourses, to explain what he termed the mythology of botanists, and reflecting on the fortunate circumstances of the residence of the American ministers within our walls, and the departure of a governor-general for the island of Java, he predicted new advantages to the worship of FLORA. 'Associated with our institution,' said he, the ministers will join us in advancing its interests; millions of plants, unknown in Europe, live exiled in the vast regions which surround the immense rivers of America; many others grow here among us, which America has never seen: under happy auspices, new exchanges will enrich each hemisphere: a few months more, and other Azaleas, other Andromedas, will embellish our parterres; and already your gratitude has commenced these new relations.'* And placing himself in idea upon that fifth part of the globe, where the names of Holland, Zealand, Vandiemen, and so many others, recall his country, and a thousand honourable recollections, 'Here,' said he, in this yet virgin soil, at the base of the gigantic Eucalypta, grow unknown, without glory and without a name, plants which, discovered and introduced among us, will excel the maleleuca, the metrosiderus, and the mimosa: others perhaps will equal in usefulness the precious tubercle imported from America, which is a gift of Providence to our state. Our prayers,' added he, addressing the new governor, 'shall precede you in the mission you are called to fill; your prince, your The finest rose produced by culture at Ghent, in the summer of 1815, solemnly received the title of Congress of Ghent." country, and science, will hope the happiest consequences. The Flora of Belgium will have in you a minister towards one of the extremities of the world, and her worship a missionary full of zeal and fervour.' Mr. Van Toers and Mr. Verbeck, in their report, have given eloquent expression to our gratitude towards his excellency the baron de Capellan, who, having reached the Cape, sought already to prove he had not forgotten us. Many seeds have been sent, by means of Mr. Van Hulthem, and plants confided to the paternal, I had almost said religious care of Mr. Mussche, have seen the light, grow and flourish, under a master who knows how to accustom them gradually to sun-beams less ardent, and a temperature less equable.* His majesty the king has given an example of munificence, and have we not reason to expect protection and encouragement from a prince, descended from that William I. celebrated as the founder of the republic, and who has such particular claim to the gratitude of botanists? He founded the university of Leyden, where an asylum was given to two of the most renowned botanical writers of Belgium in the sixteenth century, Dodone of Malines and Clusius of Anas. It remains for me to tell you, gentlemen, that our hopes seem not less justified, on the part of the new colleagues which the society has gained in the part of America where that one of the two FLORAS which sympathizes the best with ours, has fixed her empire. A few details, more at length, may not displease you, since they will communicate information, lately acquired, respecting the actual state of science in these far countries, and certain learned men who cultivate it. And first to speak of our colleagues, two only of the members of the congress of pacification were to have returned to America. One, Mr. Henry Clay, of Lexington, again occupies the station of speaker of the house of representatives. The other, Mr. Christopher Hughes, of Baltimore, secretary of the legation, after having performed with dignity another mission to Carthagena, in South America, now sits among the representatives of the nation. The four others were to have remained in Europe, as ambassadors, and two of them actually reside in that quality, Mr. John Quincy Adams at London, and Mr. John Russel at Stockholm. Mr. Bayard had been appointed to the court of St. Petersburgh. When about to embark at Portsmouth, feeling himself attacked by a disease destined to conduct him to the tomb, he longed to draw * Public spirit at Ghent seconds, in an admirable manner, all the efforts to augment our vegetable wealth. Few vessels sail to foreign ports, without instructions being given to the captains to bring home seeds and shrubs. Very recently Messrs. Von Aken have imported some from St. Bartholomew's: the cocotele of the botanic garden came from a nut given by Messrs. De Cock; and the lobster-fishery, on the coast of Norway, suggested to Mr. Von Imschoot the idea of seeking there for seeds and plants. his last breath in his own country, in that free and happy Columbia whose rights and independence he had so strenuously maintained. The prayer was granted by that Providence which had endowed this excellent man with the purest, most exalted soul. He lived but to behold for a few short hours his native town of Wilmington. The tears of his family, the lamentations of his countrymen, the public mourning of the senate, and above all the lively remembrance of his virtues and his talents, are an honourable tribute to his memory; and yourselves, gentlemen, have, by a touching and solemn homage, given expression to your regret, when, in your winter exhibition, a cypress (that sad and funereal tree, not indigenous in the United States*), marked the spot where you had before displayed the olive of America.† The right honourable James Bayard was worthy that high homage, voted by acclamation. Descended from monarchical France, a monarchy formerly absolute, he professed, without moroseness, the principles of a republican; the weight of a name eminently monarchical did not dismay him; he bore that name with pride. Under Francis I. he would have been at Marignan, the firmest supporter of his king, as in 1814 another Bayard would have combatted England beneath the walls of Baltimore. His family, it is said, have continued, and their seal presents the arms of the French warrior. But what could we infer from that isolated circumstance? It was in his virtues that we recognized the man sans peur et sans reproche.' The fourth of those of the ministers who were to remain in Europe was Mr. Albert Gallatin, a Genevan by birth. Already accredited as ambassador at the court of France, an unforeseen occurrence (the return of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the departure of Louis XVIII.) afforded him a motive for revisiting America. Our illustrious colleague carried letters from Mr. Vande Woestyne, then our president, to the Rev. Mr. Henry Muhlenberg, minister of the gospel at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, to Mr. Benjamin Barton, professor of medicine at Philadelphia, and to Dr. David Hosack, professor of botany in Columbia college, at New York, three men whose fame is not less European than American, and who are well known to those among us not unacquainted with the annals of science. You selected these three philosophers, among many others, as men not only of distinguished merit and well-deserved celebrity, but possessed of that zeal and fervour which excite to make proselytes, and to extend the sphere of learning, as well as that facility of communication and amenity of manner which add so great a charm to scientific communications, and, more rare in other branches of science, seem natural to the cultivators of botany. Cupressus sempervirens. Linn. Et non plebeios luctus testata cupressus. Juv. Olea Americana. Linn. It was by the aid of these men Mr. Gallatin hoped to realize great advantage to our society. But death, who loves to disappoint the best founded calculations, and the best conceived hopes, had appointed the end of Mr. Muhlenberg. He is no more. Professor Barton, also, if I rightly understand a paragraph concerning him, is now no more. * Mr. David Hosack survives; but living at a great distance from Fayette county, the residence of Mr. Gallatin, and from Washington, the seat of government, how could he have an opportunity to see, how could he meet the ambassador, before his departure for Europe? Chance, or, as those among us would rather say, whose beautiful mythology admits the intervention of a Providence, in all that concerns the transplanting and the growth of plants, Flora herself conducted Mr. Gallatin to New York, where the Elgin Botanic Garden, founded in 1801 by the same David Hosack, is now the most superb establishment in that part of the world, dedicated to that science. A communication has thus been opened between the Belgic Flora and the Flora of Columbia, and shall not be interrupted; a very obliging letter, from our colleague to the president of the society, attests and guarantees it: but it was not then known to the American botanist that Mr. Vande Woestyne also was no more. Thus death extends his ravages to the two extremities of the world: he traverses the ocean with the speed of lightning; like the thunder-bolt he strikes now on this, now on the other side of the Atlantic, and the more or less distant rolling of the thunder announces only whether the stroke has fallen near us or afar. suc Reflections upon death fill us with sadness; yet we yield to them, in spite of ourselves, and that very melancholy is not without its charm. The man dies-the plant dies too; but in this, more blessed than man, whose virtues and whose talents too oft descend with him to the grave, the plant, even in its scions, beholds itself, s cessively embellished; cultivation adds to the dignity of its stature, to the graces of its flower, and each daughter surpassing in beauty the beauty of its mother, deserves the application of the verse of Horace, which contains this sentiment. Let us leave these images, and return to the subject of this discourse. Mr. Gallatin, like the baron de Capellan, was desirous to acquire a claim to the gratitude of European botanists, and imported into our continent a great number of seeds, which have been confided to our chief gardener. Is ** I ventured to anticipate the intentions of the society, in asking information from Mr. Gallatin, and at the same time from Mr. Pictet, of Geneva, who, in his magazine of July last, announces that a new edition of the Elements of Botany of the late professor Barton had just been published at Philadelphia. this Mr. Barton the same with Mr. Benjamin Smith Barton, professor in the university of Pennsylvania, who was alive in the month of March last? That is the question. Mr. Barton, if he still lives, will see in the anticipated expression of our fears what pleasure he will give us in removing them. † O matre pulchra filia pulchrior. L. i. od. 16. |