122 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of this growth is the constant greater increase of life 

 members, the roll for 1837 showing 36 life and 306 

 annual members, while in 1878 there were 577 life and 

 323 annual members. 



How far the founders of the Society anticipated that 

 it would be endowed by wealthy and generous men with 

 gifts of money and legacies cannot now be told, though 

 doubtless their hopes, if not their expectations, looked 

 forward to such endowments ; nor were their hopes dis- 

 appointed. The first of these donations, which has al- 

 ready been alluded to, was from the Hon. John Welles, 

 on the 13th of June, 1829, only a few months after the 

 organization of the Society. This donation of a hundred 

 dollars was intended to promote the improvement of 

 the apple, and was offered in premiums for the fruit 

 of seedling trees which should be brought into notice 

 after the year 1829. 



In 1835 a donation of $1,000 was received from Am- 

 brose S. Courtis, a merchant of Boston. Mr. Courtis, 

 who died on the 27th of August, 1836, bequeathed to 

 the Society the further sum of $10,000 ; but, the will 

 being contested by the heirs at law, a compromise was 

 made, by which the Society received, in 1839, one half 

 the amount intended by the testator, whose benefac- 

 tions were among the largest ever made to the Society, 

 and coming in its infancy, when its funds were limited, 

 may be considered the most important of all. 



In 1839, also, Thomas Lee of Roxbury, a lover and 

 cultivator of our native flowering plants, offered $150 

 to encourage their- growth, to be awarded in premiums 

 during that and the succeeding four years. This gift 

 was on the condition that the Society should offer an 

 equal amount; and, on the same condition, Mr. Lee, 



