218 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



perfect. The Massachusetts Society is now 

 proudly pre-eminent in its library, which is the 

 best one of a horticultural character in the 

 Union, if not in the world. If it has any money 

 to spare, let it take up a horticultural garden 

 next. Its members would learn more in a 

 week among living plants than in a life-time 

 among dry specimens— and the herbariums of 

 the botanists, and the botanists will settle 

 disputed points better than, the members of 

 the Horticultural Society w^ould ever do for 

 themselves. And then the horticultural experi- 

 ments of such a garden, detailed in the transac- 

 tions, would do good over all the world. 



Report of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety. — The following kind notice from the Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle shows the high appreciation of 

 the Society's work in intelligent European cities : 



" We have received, throtigh the kindness of 

 Colonel Wilder, a report of the last meeting of 

 the American Pomological Society, held at Chi- 

 cago, 1875. The perusal of this report gives us 

 a vivid idea of the magnitude of the Society's 

 operations, and the zeal with which its work is 

 carried on. We know of nothing to approach it 

 in Europe. The report before us contains the 

 sunmiary of the business of the meeting, at- 

 tended by delegates from most of the States of 

 the Union ; various essays on certain points of 

 fruit-tree culture, to some of which we may 

 hereafter refer ; and last, not least, a most valua- 

 ble (for America) catalogue of fruits, authenti- 

 cally named, with their synonyms, a brief de- 

 scription and indication of the value in which 

 the particular fruit is held, as judged by a com- 

 mittee, in the several States, grouped under a 

 northern division between 42^ and 49°, a central 

 division between 35° and 42°, and a southern 

 division between 28° and 35° lat. 



Mr. Rand's Book on Orchids. — The following 

 letter from Mr. Rand is addressed to Mr. Mee- 

 han personally, but as it relates to matter which 

 appeared in the Gardener's Monthly, we presume 

 it was intended for the Editor, and so give it a 

 place in our columns : 



" Boston, June 5, 1876. 



Dear Mr. Meehan : — This morning my atten- 

 tion was called to your notice of my book on 

 orchid culture. May I say that if you had found 

 time to reply to either of my letters written in 

 February last, asking for information as to any 

 collection of orchids now or formerly existing in 

 Philadelphia, the omissions of which you com- 

 plain would not have occurred. I regret to have 



killed oft' Mr. Cope. My impression always was 

 that his decease was the cause of the dispersion 

 of his collection of plants. 



I thank you for the faint praise. Perhaps if 

 you were an orchid culturist you would find more 

 to commend. 



Now may I ask you a question which I heard 

 one gentleman ask another — both well-known to 

 you— at the horticultural rooms, and to which I 

 have for years been unable to give an answer ? 

 ' What is the reason Mr. Meehan can see no 

 good in anything that comes from Boston ; he is 

 as bitter as gall, and lets some, unaccountable 

 prejudice run away with him. Nothing from 

 Boston can expect fair treatment at his hands.' 

 While personally I have ever experienced cour- 

 tesy from you, I cannot but be of our friend's 

 opinion. Sincerely yours, 



Edward S. Rand, Jr." 



It is remarkable that with the knowledge that 

 "nothing from Boston gets fiiir treatment," " Bos 

 ton " should expect a "reply to two letters ; " still 

 more remarkable, that while " regretting " one's 

 errors, it should be thought unfoir treatment to 

 have these errors pointed out. More remarka- 

 ble still is the fact that two letters written to Mr. 

 Meehan in February should never have reached 

 him; and the climax of all these remarkable 

 events is that because one gentleman writes let- 

 ters to another gentleman who in courtesy is not 

 hound to answer them unless he feels inclined to, 

 that should afterward be offered as an excuse for 

 errors in a book, which even the author himself 

 " very much regrets." 



Flora of California. — The first volume is 

 now ready, and may be had for $6 of Mr. Sereno 

 Watson, Cambridge, Mass. The proceeds are to 

 bring out the second and concluding volume. 



Guide to the Pacific Coast.— A circular an- 

 nounces that Mr. Williams, formerly editor of 

 the Horticulturist, will soon have a Pacific guide 

 book ready for the press. 



D. D. T. Moore. — Our old friend of the Rural 

 Neiv Yorkei' cannot be idle since he gave up his 

 paper, and here before us is a circular of his ad- 

 vertising agency. It always struck us that a 

 knowledge of agriculturists and of agricultural 

 literature should be essential to a go'od advertis- 

 ing agent, and it is singular that no one saw the 

 force of this till Mr. Moore took it up. 



New PLANTS.—Mr. W. Bull, of Chelsea, Lon- 

 don, makes a specialty of new and rare plants, 



