270 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of members was fixed at thirteen, at which it has since 

 remained. 



We close this chapter with an extract from the 

 Transactions of the Society for 1843-46, as showing 

 the feeling at that time in regard to its past and future 

 progress : 



u When we look back through the brief space of time since 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was first established, and 

 notice the rapid progress that has been made in horticultural 

 knowledge, the general diffusion of hitherto unknown delicious 

 fruits and exquisite flowers, the facility with which they can be 

 made to sport, and form improved new varieties by cross impreg- 

 nation and other means of art, the imagination is inclined to 

 anticipate the future, and inquire to what perfection in horticul- 

 tural science shall our successors arrive half a century hence, 

 should the same enterprising spirit be manifest in the future 

 operations of this and other kindred societies, as has been exhib- 

 ited by those who have been associated with us in times past." 



