CONTEMPORARY PERSONS AND EVENTS. 63 



On the 28th of April the Society voted to petition the 

 Legislature for an act of incorporation, which was ap- 

 proved by the governor on the 12th of June, and 

 accepted by the Society on the 28th of the same month. 1 



It may be of interest to say a word of persons and 

 events contemporaneous with the formation of the So- 

 ciety. Boston had then been an incorporated city for 

 only seven years. Hon. Harrison Gray Otis was its chief 

 magistrate. The city contained not far from 60,000 

 inhabitants, or about one-sixth of its present popula- 

 tion. In area it has now increased more than tenfold, 

 and includes the residences of many, then deemed coun- 

 try gentlemen, who were active in forming the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society. The valuation of the 

 city has increased from $80,000,000 to eight times that 

 amount ; and that of the State, which was then $200,- 

 000,000, has increased in nearly as great a ratio. The 

 population of the State has grown from 600,000 to 

 three times that number. This community was then 

 earnestly discussing the subjects of building the West- 

 ern Railroad, completing Bunker Hill Monument, and 

 the founding of an institution for the instruction of 

 the blind. The Hon. Levi Lincoln, a practical horticul- 

 turist, was the Governor of Massachusetts ; and John 

 Quincy Adams was near the close of his term of office 

 as President of the United States, Andrew Jackson 

 having been elected to succeed him. Jacob Lorillard 

 was president of the New York Horticultural Society ; 

 Zaccheus Collins, of the Pennsylvania Society; and 

 Thomas Andrew Knight presided over that of London. 



1 Of this Act Mr. London said (Gardener's Magazine, February, 1830), 

 " There is something grand and refreshing in the simple form of the Act of 

 Incorporation, as compared with the highly aristocratical royal charters of 

 the London, Paris, and Berlin societies." The Act, with several Acts in 

 addition thereto, may be found in Appendix A. 



