198 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tee reported that the state of the library must be 

 gratifying to every member of the Society. By the aid 

 of the liberal donation of Mr. Smith, added to the 

 appropriation by the Society, they had been enabled to 

 purchase several new and valuable works. Those pur- 

 chased from the Smith Fund were, as far as recorded, 

 Michaux's Sylva Americana with Nuttall's continuation, 

 Dr. J. D. Hooker's Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya, 

 Thornton's Illustrations of the LinnaBan System, and Sir 

 W. J. Hooker's Victoria Regia. In 1852 also several 

 French horticultural and agricultural works were re- 

 ceived through the International Exchange of M. Alex- 

 andre Vattemare. 



For some years the reports of the Library Committee 

 were generally similar in character to those of which 

 the substance has been already given, recording addi- 

 tions more or less important in number and value, and 

 a gradual increase in the circulation of the books, but 

 admitting that the progress in this department was not 

 commensurate with that in other branches of the Soci- 

 ety's work. One great reason for this slow growth is 

 indicated in the reports of the committee for 1855 and 

 1857, the want of a commodious and pleasant library 

 room, the one then occupied being lighted only from a 

 narrow court, and being so damp as to require the 

 greatest care on the part of the librarian to preserve 

 the books. 



Beginning with 1857, the reports of the Library Com- 

 mittee have been regularly printed in the Transactions 

 of the Society. Previously to 1860 they were quite 

 short, occupying less than a page ; but in that year the 

 committee made a full and elaborate report, reviewing 

 the history of the library, and stating their own action, 



