290 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



most successful cultivators at home, as the other committees 

 report the finest products exhibited in the hall of the Society." 



This address was referred to a committee, on whose 

 report the recommendation of the president was adopted, 

 and the measure was afterwards incorporated into the 

 hy-laws, by providing for a standing committee on gar- 

 dens, and defining its duties. Another suggestion of 

 the president, discussed by the committee in their able 

 report, related to holding the annual exhibition under 

 a large tent ; and it was thought that this measure 

 might lead to a larger attendance, that for a few years 

 preceding having undeniably been less numerous than 

 was desirable. The committee stated further, that, 

 either because a fee had been charged for admission, 

 or from some other cause, the weekly exhibitions seemed 

 to have lost their attractions, and recommended a return 

 to the original practice of making them free to the 

 public. This recommendation was also adopted, and a 

 year later the change was reported as successful, a 

 large assemblage having weekly filled the hall, admiring 

 the productions of the garden, the greenhouse, and 

 the orchard. 



The displays of foreign grapes by J. F. Allen were 

 continued almost through the year, the last exhibition 

 of the crop of 1849, from the retarding house, having 

 been on the 2d of February, 1850, and the first of the 

 crop of 1850 on the 2f3d of March. June 15, Hovey 

 & Co. showed thirty-six varieties of hardy azaleas, and 

 fifty blooms of rhododendrons in eight or ten varieties, 

 the most extensive display of these beautiful flowers 

 then made. From Joseph Breck came Clematis azurea 

 grandiflora " of out-door culture and had proved quite 



