264 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in thirty varieties (the Washington still taking the 

 lead) from twenty-two contributors, an exhibition 

 in itself. The present generation can have no idea 

 how much such a collection of plums, in their rich 

 colors of purple and scarlet and gold, adds to the 

 beauty of a horticultural show, and we are not sur- 

 prised to learn that the exhibition surpassed all previous 

 weekly shows. The Jefferson plum was exhibited from 

 Kobert Manning's Pomological Garden this year for the 

 first time. October 12 John Owen exhibited a box of 

 Green Gage plums, being the sixty-seventh taken from 

 the same tree. 



At this time it was not unusual for a single contrib- 

 utor to place on the table a dozen or more bouquets, 

 larger or smaller. We read of one large bouquet com- 

 posed wholly of dahlias, and embracing seventeen vari- 

 eties, and of smaller ones of roses and verbenas. On 

 the 31st of August ten different contributors presented 

 each one or more bouquets. The 7th of September the 

 committee remarked that the great number of apples 

 which were weekly presented for names, amounting in 

 all to scores if not hundreds of specimens, without 

 any statement whether they were seedlings or grafted 

 fruits, and without giving the local name, or a descrip- 

 tion of the growth of the tree, rendered it impossible 

 to comply with such requests. .. -, 



As may be judged from what we have said of the 

 weekly exhibitions, the season of 1844 was remarkably 

 favorable for fruit ; and at the annual exhibition, on 

 the 18th, 19th, and 20th of September, the fruit was 

 contributed in such quantities, that room could not be 

 found on the tables for all, although the usual variety 

 of flowers was greatly diminished by the long-continued 



