

300 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Cabot recommended to the Society to hold occasional 

 meetings for the discussion of subjects pertaining to 

 horticulture. The suggestion was referred to a commit- 

 tee, who reported favorably upon it ; and accordingly an 

 informal meeting was held on Saturday the 15th of Jan- 

 uary, at half past nine A.M., at which the culture of the 

 pear was discussed. Four other meetings were held at 

 intervals of two weeks ; the subjects being the advan- 

 tage of heading in newly planted trees, the importance 

 of mulching pear trees, and the value of wool waste as 

 a manure. 



The opening exhibition of the season took place on* 

 the 14th of May. The weather was fine, and the show 

 of plants in pots was unusually rich, varied, and beauti- 

 ful, finer than any ever before seen at the May exhi- 

 bition. The summer was memorable for the exhibition, 

 by John Fisk ^.llen, of the Victoria regia, or great 

 water lily. On the 18th of June a leaf four feet in 

 diameter was shown, and on the 16th of July one 

 measuring five and a half feet. A flower was shown at 

 a special exhibition, on the afternoon and evening of 

 Thursday, August 4, to a crowd of admiring visitors. 

 The committee recommended a gratuity of fifty dollars 

 to Mr. Allen for the introduction and successful cultiva- 

 tion of this rare and wonderful plant. On the 6th of 

 August, Alvin Adams exhibited, besides other Califor- 

 nia productions, bark and foliage from the gigantic 

 redwood trees of California (Sequoia gigantea). The 

 botanical relations of this tree were not then deter- 

 mined, and it was described as " the mammoth arbor- 

 vitee tree, said to be about three hundred feet high." 



We have spoken of the interesting exhibitions of 

 native plants in 1839, the result of the special prizes 



