406 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The exhibition of winter pears of the crop of 1873 

 was unusually good ; and the requirement of a statement 

 of the method of keeping was more fully complied with 

 than before. The crop of 1874 was not equal to that 

 of the previous year, but about an average one. The 

 weekly and annual exhibitions were very fine ; but the 

 varieties and collections were much the same as in 

 former seasons, with little to call for particular men- 

 tion. At the annual exhibition Capt. Charles H. Allen 

 of Salem contributed a dish of Orange pears from a 

 tree two hundred and thirty-five years old. The exhi- 

 bition of autumn pears and apples was unusually large 

 and fine. Edward S. Ritchie presented a Seckel pear 

 which was thought to be the largest specimen of that 

 variety ever seen at the rooms. It measured around 

 the middle nine and four-tenths inches, and weighed, 

 when taken from the tree, eight ounces. The Madame 

 Henri Desportes, a new variety presented by Marshall 

 P. Wilder, was thought to be of much promise. D. W. 

 Lothrop exhibited a seedling from the Marie Louise, of 

 excellent quality, and th<* seedlings from F. L. Clapp 

 and Asahel Foote were again shown and reported on. 



The season was so unfavorable to native grapes, that 

 the shows were unsatisfactory, and of but little interest. 

 For this reason, the committee forbore to express any 

 decided opinion in regard to the new seedling varieties, 

 of which many were presented. The show of foreign 

 grapes varied little from the standard of former years. 



A specimen of the Monstera deliciosa (Philodendron 

 pertusum), a plant of the order Araceae, a native of 

 Mexico and the West Indies, which has been somewhat 

 cultivated in England for the sake of its fruit, was pre- 

 sented by Hovey Co. This fruit consists of the spa- 



