FETJITS AND FLOWERS. 225 



drews (native), were shown. Though the St. Michael 

 had begun to crack, many fine specimens, especially 

 from sheltered gardens in Boston, were shown, among 

 which was a branch twenty-six inches long bearing 

 thirty-eight large and fair pears, the whole weighing 

 ten pounds and three ounces. July 31 Samuel G. Per- 

 kins sent a beautiful basket of forced grapes and nec- 

 tarines. One of the latter was the Lewis or Boston 

 nectarine, a new native variety, of which Mr. Perkins 

 said, " This fruit was painted, some years since, by my 

 order, and sent to the Horticultural Society of London; 

 but I have understood that doubts have been enter- 

 tained as to the correctness of its coloring, it being 

 thought too brilliant to be natural. You will see, how- 

 ever, by the specimens I shall present you, that there is 

 no deception on that score." As the season advanced, 

 the exhibitions increased in extent and interest, culmi- 

 nating on the 9th of October, when, in the language of 

 the report, " the display of fruits was unusually great," 

 and closing on the 27th of November. 



As in the history of horticulture generally, so in the 

 history of the Society, the useful came before the 

 beautiful ; and fruit was at this time the most promi- 

 nent object claiming the attention of the members, 

 while the reports of the exhibitions of flowers are but 

 meagre in comparison. We have already mentioned 

 the tulips and ranunculuses, and, besides these, the 

 only flowers of which 'any considerable number of vari- 

 eties were exhibited were the geranium, rose, and 

 chrysanthemum. Of geraniums the varieties were Ig- 

 nescens, Washingtonianum, Eowena, Prince Leopold, 

 Macranthum, Involucratum, Maximum, Lattelobium, 

 Pickiei, Maculatum, Davianum, Lady Scott Douglass, 



