104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it is. How many such misplaced plants a better knowledge of systematic 

 botany would save us. 



In the management of the duty assigned the Committee, this present 

 report can be only preliminary. It remains for the Horticultural Society to 

 avail itself of the best plans it can command to vindicate its sense of the 

 relation it bears, in common with other similar societies, to the most en- 

 lightened advancement of agricultural interests. Such a duty is clearly 

 its, and the way and manner must arise from judicious and careful con- 

 siderateness. Trusting for one that our Society will not prove faithless to 

 its interests in the highest advantages of the topic its labors conspire to 

 advocate, I have committed to you, gentlemen, these my spontaneous 

 thoughts on matters long dwelling in my mind, and trust that out of asso- 

 ciated and harmonious concerns, wisdom to guide and prudence to direct 

 may accrue. 



