HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 185 



some years ago, where they never have cold weather, on account of 

 being surrounded by the sea, I noticed more blight among the pear 

 trees than I have noticed among the Transcendents. I said to 

 myself if this is the case, the cold weather cannot have anything to 

 do with blight on pear trees. Massachusetts is a great country for 

 pears, and wherever I went I found the leaves were all dried up, 

 and sometimes the entire tree was killed; not a tree that I saw but 

 was affected with blight, in that country surrounded by the sea, 

 and warm in Winter. 



President Elliot. There has been a good deal of thought put on 

 this question of blight. We all know that when a tree is healthy 

 and making a healthy growth, and everything about it is congenial 

 to its health, we don't see much blight. Some attribute blight to 

 the over production of sap, and others to the want of sap; the 

 leaves cannot manufacture sap fast enough, and that the leaves 

 manufacture too much sap. I think the constituency of the soil is 

 where the trouble is, some element in the soil being deficient. 



Col. Stevens was then called upon to read his paper. He said: 

 When, at the request of our president, I commenced to prepare a 

 paper 01 the wild flowers of Minnesota,I found I had an elephant on 

 my hands; I thought I could get it up in a day or two, but found it 

 took a month or two. I found we had over eight hundred varieties 

 of flowers and plants in Minnesota, and that if I extended my paper 

 as it should be, it would occupy a whole book, hence I condensed 

 it. I have a representation of every family of flowering plants, 

 and if I should attempt to read all my paper it would take me two 

 hours, and I think, on that account, it would be better, perhaps, to 

 dispense with the reading of it. 



By request Colonel Stevens then read part of the following paper. 



WILD .FLOWERS OF MINNESOTA. 



By Col. J. H. Stevens, of Minneapolis. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen. 



In the latter part of May, 1851, it was my pleasure to accompany 

 Hon. Amos Tuck, then a distinguished member of congress, from 

 New Hampshire, through some portions of the territory of Min- 

 nesota. At that time the prairies were covered and the woodland 

 was full of beautiful, delicate wild flowers. That gentleman's de- 

 light was unbounded. He frequently quoted the couplet: 

 "Full many a flower is born to blush UDseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



Minnesota, in those days, had a rich flora. So it has now. At 



