142 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



can imagine Gen. Dearborn presiding, surrounded by 

 the founders and leading members of the Society, 

 Cook, Bartlett, Downer, French, Newhall, Manning, 

 Kenrick, Phinney, Williams, Winship, Emmons, Chand- 

 ler, Richards, Haggerston, Walker, Vose, Shurtleff, 

 Pratt, and others who have passed over the dark river, 

 and Russell, Breed, Ives, Wilder, Gray, P. B. Hovey, 

 Weld, and others who still remain to meet in the present 

 magnificent hall of the Society, so different from the 

 plain hired room which was then its home. 



At a meeting of the Council on the 26th of September, 

 1829, John Prince and Samuel Downer were appointed 

 a committee to procure a pyramidical set of shelves for 

 the better exhibition of flowers, etc. ; and at the same 

 time Gen. Dearborn and Messrs. Cook and Downer were 

 appointed to procure accurate drawings of our native 

 fruits. These paintings, which were obtained at con- 

 siderable expense, were framed for the embellishment 

 of the room, but were destroyed in the fire at the room 

 in Cornhill, in March, 1836. 



After the Society removed, the room was again occu- 

 pied by the agricultural warehouse, and has so con- 

 tinued to this day ; the business having since 1836 been 

 carried on by the firm of Joseph Breck & Co., of which 

 the late venerable president of the Horticultural Society 

 was for thirty-seven years the head. The room was 

 rented by the Society of Mr. Russell, who had a lease 

 from the owner of the building, Nathaniel Hammond, 

 in possession of whose heirs it still remains. 



In less than a year from the time this room was occu- 

 pied we find the Society looking out for^ new quarters. 

 Probably it had grown so that this was too small ; and 

 on the 13th of March, 1830, it was voted, " that it is 



