24 THE HORTICULTURE OF 



was the establishment of the Botanic Garden at Cam- 

 bridge ; furnishing, as it has done to the present day, a 

 most extensive and interesting collection of native and 

 foreign plants collected from all parts of the world ; 

 where the student may be instructed, the eye charmed, 

 the senses gratified with an infinite variety of curi- 

 ous and beautiful trees and various types of the floral 

 kingdom ; and where the science of plant life and its mani- 

 fold relations to the arts and industries are illustrated, 

 in their connection with the happiness of the human race. 

 This garden was established at the beginning of the 

 present century, and has ever exercised a happy influ- 

 ence on horticulture and the knowledge of plants. It had 

 for its early patron the Massachusetts Society for Pro- 

 moting Agriculture, which in 1801 laid its foundation 

 by a liberal subscription to establish a Professorship of 

 Natural History at Cambridge, culminating in the 

 planting of the Botanic Garden, 1 at Harvard Univer- 

 sity, which has exerted a direct influence on the taste 

 that ultimately led to the formation of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society. 2 



Under the direction of Professors Thomas Nuttall, 

 Thaddeus William Harris, Asa Gray, and Charles S. Sar- 

 gent, it has had a world wide reputation, and now under 

 the direction of Professor Goodale, is in a very satis- 

 factory condition. It has been much improved by the 

 efforts of Dr. Gray and Professor Sargent, but still needs 

 funds to promote its usefulness. Through the exertions 

 of Prof. Goodale the sum of more than fifty thousand 

 dollars has been already subscribed towards a permanent 

 fund, which we have no doubt will be established, and 

 thus this most useful institution will be placed in a 



1 Transactions for the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 ture, New Series, Vol. 1st, page 28th. 



-History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, page 40. 



