79 



of the Peabody Academy of Science." The two institutions working 

 in a common cause, with organizations entirely different in character. 

 The Academy, a close corporation of nine members holding funds for 

 specific purposes, and employing agents to perform duties not incon- 

 sistent with the Instrument of Trust. The Institute a popular insti- 

 tution of some hundreds of members. The one supplementing the 

 other, and the reasons whj' the two may not continue, as now, to co- 

 operate harmoniously in the performance of duties committed to 

 their care, and thus to build up an institution, or a sei'ies of in- 

 stitutions, which will shed a brilliant lustre for a long term of years 

 throughout our laud, and be a beacon light to the investigator in his- 

 tory, science, art and literature. 



He mentioned the amendatory act recently passed by the Legisla- 

 ture and the organization of a new department, that of "the arts," 

 and expressed the hope that the increasing development of a taste 

 for music and the other line arts in this community will soon place it 

 in an honorable position. Horticulture he considered the prime 

 mover in this cliain of events, and to her aid the literary and scien- 

 tific institutions in this place are largely indebted for their present 

 position. 



Mr. A. C. GooDELL, Jr., remarked upon the pleasant change in 

 New England with regard to the observance of May day, this ancient 

 holiday of motherland. He alluded to the antiquity of the name of 

 May, some attributing it to Maia the mother of Mercurj-, others as- 

 serting that it is of Teutonic origin. The celebration of the day was 

 distasteful to the Puritans, and he gave a very interesting account of 

 Thomas Morton of Clifford's Inn, Gent., and of the famous May day 

 revels at Ma-re Mount, now Mount WoUaston, in Quincy, which were 

 celebrated under his direction in 162G, and of the action of the colo- 

 nial authorities against him, the dispersion of his followers and the 

 destruction of his plantation, and of the principal known facts of his 

 subsequent career down to the time of his death in York, Me., in 1G46 ; 

 and stated that this tirst May day jubilee was the last for genera- 

 tions. The times are greatly changed and, it is to be hoped that May 

 morning will evermore be held sacred to the celebration of the sun's 

 return, the bursting of green buds and the birth of the flowers. 



Mr. George D. Phippen narrated some of his early reminiscences 

 of the liorticultural exhibitious and of his botanical excursions in 

 this vicinity at that time ; also the changes that had occurred ; many 

 of the old favorite flowers have retired before the waves of an in- 

 creasing population, and hereafter they will be strangers to their once 

 familiar grounds. A more extended account of these reminiscences, 

 especially in relation to Dark Lane (so-called in the olden times') and 

 its vicinity, will be given in a future ninnber. 



