286 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



hundred dishes, in one hundred and fifty varieties ; 

 grapes, one hundred and twenty-five dishes, in forty 

 varieties ; peaches, fifty dishes, in twenty-five varieties ; 

 plums, twenty-five dishes, in twelve varieties ; making 

 an aggregate of two thousand one hundred dishes, in 

 five hundred and seventy-seven varieties, and over eight 

 thousand specimens. Of flowers there were three thou- 

 sand specimens, including more than four hundred varie- 

 ties ; and of vegetables, one thousand five hundred 

 specimens, which comprehended seventy varieties. At 

 the first exhibition, in 1829, there were only fifty-five 

 parcels of fruit, including not over thirty varieties, and 

 not more than one hundred and twenty kinds of flowers. 

 In the autumn of 1834, fourteen years previous to 

 the exhibition now described, the Society held its sixth 

 annual exhibition in Faneuil Hall ; and those who wit- 

 nessed both did not hesitate to say that, for beauty of 

 arrangement, brilliancy of appearance, and general 

 effect, the exhibition of 1834 was superior to that of 



1848. This superiority was due to the contributions of 

 plants and flowers and floral decorations; for in 1834 

 the contributions of fruit were small indeed, but in 1848 

 they had increased to such an extent that even Faneuil 

 Hall was hardly sufficient for their display. 



At the close of the exhibition, the third (and last) tri- 

 ennial festival of the Society was held in Faneuil Hall. 

 The arrangements were so similar to those of the festi- 

 val of 1845, that no further account will be necessary 

 here. An engraved representation of the festive scene 

 was published in the Horticulturist for November, 1848, 

 and copied into the Flore des Series. 



Two special awards were made early in the year 



1849, which should be recorded here. The first of 



