54 THE HORTICULTURE OF 



Watertown and Waltham have been celebrated for 

 the residences of wealthy merchants and citizens, as 

 far back as the last century. Belmont, at Water- 

 town, formerly the residence of John Perkins Gushing, 

 now the home of Samuel R. Payson, has been, and is 

 still, one of the most celebrated places in New England 

 if not in the United States, for its horticultural taste 

 and improvement, having been kept up for more than 

 half a century in the most improved manner. Here, 

 for the last fifteen years, Mr. Payson has indulged his 

 natural taste in the pleasures of rural life, by the 

 acquisition and cultivation of the most beautiful fruits 

 and flowers of the age. This estate, some sixty years 

 ago, was the residence of Eben Preble, an old merchant 

 of Boston, and brother of Commodore Preble. He built 

 the brick walls still enclosing the grounds in which the 

 present conservatories and other glass structures are 

 located. Mr. Preble, in 1805, imported into Boston 

 one hundred and fifty varieties of fruit trees, and so 

 great has been the improvement in our fruits that 

 only two of the varieties are now considered valuable.. 

 This estate passed to Nathaniel Amory, who married 

 the daughter of Mr. Preble ; thence to R. D. Shephard 

 about 1830, in a few years to Mr. Gushing, and, after 

 his death, about 1860, to Mr. Payson. 



Mr. Gushing was a great lover of the works of nature, 

 and, with lavish expenditures of wealth, he improved 

 this estate in the highest sense of the word, by the lay- 

 ing out of the grounds and by the erection of numerous 

 plant and fruit houses. He contributed to the exhibi- 

 tions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and he 

 opened his grounds once a week to the public in 

 the summer season, making his place the most famous 

 in his day for horticultural progress in New England. 



The present estate of Mr. Payson embraces about 



