Price.] 340 [Dec. 15, 



The Michaux Trees. 



{Report of Committee read before the American Philosophical Society, 



December 15, 187G.J 



To THE American Philosophical Society and to the Fairmoint 



Park Commissioners : 



The Chairman of the Committee on the Michaux Fund of the said Society, 

 and of the Committee on Trees and Nurseries of the latter, respectfully 

 reports : 



That he I'egards this year, 1876, as an era, from which will date a large 

 advancement in the matters under the care of said Committees. Before it 

 began very valuable importations of the rarest oaks had been made and 

 planted in the Park Nurseiy, from which the first transplantations have 

 lately been made into the Park grounds, and a few of them have been 

 ordered into the Campus of the University of Pennsylvania this fall. 

 Some planting out of the various trees in the Nursery had been made in the 

 Park along the few avenues opened, and 1639 trees have been planted over 

 the spac3 occupied for the Centennial International Exhibition. The 

 formation of the grounds within that space by the Board of Finance of tlie 

 Exhibition and the planting therein are an invaluable acquisition to the 

 Fairmount Park, as open w^aste fields have thereby been converted into 

 beautiful gardens, witli avenues, walks and fountains. Ii is true, that the 

 garden of the Horticultural Hall was, to a large extent, planted witli trees 

 and flowers by Foreign and American exhibitors. James Veitch & Sons, 

 of King's Road, Chelsea, S. W., near London, presented to the Park Coni- 

 missioners their valuable collection of trees and plants, consisting chiefly 

 of Rhododendrons. 



Tlie American exhibitors who had collected and planted in the garden 

 of Horticultural Hall a rare variety of trees and ligneous plants were 

 Thomas Meehan, of Germantown ; Hoopes, Brother & Thomas, of West 

 Chester, Pa.; S. B. Parsons & Sons, and R. B. Parson & Co., of Flushing, 

 N. Y. ; Miller & Hayes, of Mount Airy, Philadoli)hia ; Mahlon Moon, of 

 Morrisville, Pa.; and Robert Buist, of Philadelphia. Tiiey were actuated 

 by a liberal desire that their collections should remain in the Park, and 

 offered them at prices which they esteemed little over half the cost to 

 them. It was an object to the Commissioners to secure these permanently 

 for our Park, to be transplanted as thinning out sliall be required for their 

 healthy growth, and they have been secured by i)urchase. 



The resources for this purchase should be here stated. They were as 

 follows : 

 The city's appropriation, by the Park Commission applied for 



Nurseries in 1876 $1,500 00 



Accumulated Interest on Elliott Cresson's Legacy 3,000 00 



" " Andr6 F. Michaux's Legacy 414 60 



Contributions by the following persons of $100 each, to wit: 



William L. Schafl'cr, George C. Thomas, Charles II. Rogers, 



