330 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



are deterred from purchasing any new things from positive fear of decep- 

 tion. — Yours ^ W., June, 1847. 



Art. III. Obituary. 



Death of the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert. — The Gard. Chronicle, of 

 June 5th, announces the death of the Dean of Manchester, which took place 

 suddenly, at his house in Hereford street, at 1 o'clock on Friday, the 28th of 

 May, in the 69th year of his age. 



The Chronicle truly states that his death " is the greatest loss which 

 horticulture has sustained since the death of Mr. Andrew Knight, not 

 merely on account of his skill as an experienced cultivator, but because of 

 his scientific attainments and profound knowledge of the laws of hybridizing, 

 which had been so fully elucidated by himself in the experience of a long 

 life, which he had applied with admirable judgment, and to which we must 

 continue to look for years to come as the surest aid to the improvement of 

 the races of plants. Fortunately for the world, his latest views on the 

 subject have been preserved in the two valuable papers ' Upon Hybridiza- 

 tion among Vegetables,' which have been published in the Journal of the 

 Horticultural Society, and which constitute a rich mine of valuable facts 

 and not less valuable reasoning." 



Mr. Herbert was the originator of quite a number of new plants, and 

 among them some fine camellias. The Chronicle thus closes a notice of 

 his death : — 



" The Dean of Manchester was early and constantly attached to natural 

 history. In youth he was an indomitable pedestrian and an excellent shot, 

 and made his gun subservient to the study of ornithology, as well as his 

 pencil and paint-brush, with which he was tolerably expert. The edition 

 of White's Selborne, published by Professor Rennie, in 1832, contains 

 many closely printed pages of his ornithological observations ; and the title 

 page gives a spirited specimen of his^ draughtsmanship. In more domestic 

 periods of life, the science of botany, and the art of horticulture, (two 

 very different things) were pursued by him with great success. The Bo- 

 tanical Magazine and Register received from him frequent communications. 

 His greatest work in this line, ' The Amaryllidaceaj,' accompanied with a 

 treatise on hybrid intermixtures, was published in the year 1837. And 

 such leisure as remained to him, in the succeeding years of connection with 

 a great manufacturing city, and of declining strength, was employed on the 

 Iridaceffi, which, had longer time or better health been granted him, would 

 have been as complete as the former." 



Art. IV. Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Saturday, June 5th, 1847. — An adjourned meeting of the Society was 

 held to-day — the President in the chair. 



The following members were elected : — Albert BuUard, T. H. Foster, 

 John J. Adams, and George T. Bigelow, Boston. 



