52 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



work is now here, awaiting your acceptance. Yonr Committee 

 desire to congratulate the Society on possessing so faithful a me- 

 morial of a gentleman whose merit as a historian is known to 

 thousands who are unaware of his valuable services to this Society, 

 which are in this manner acknowledged. 



C. O. Whitmore, ) 



E. W. BuswELL, > Committee." 



"William Gray, Jr., ) 



Charles M. Hovey announced to the Society the decease of 

 George W. Pratt, and offered the following resolutions : 



The Massachusetts Horticultural Society having learned with 

 deep regret of the decease of their late member, George W. Pratt, 

 it is hereby 



Hesolved, That in his death the Society has lost one of its ori- 

 ginal and oldest members, who not only was highly instrumental 

 in perfecting its organization, but continued for a long period to 

 act in various important official capacities, and particularly in the 

 labor of inaugurating Mount Auburn Cemetery. 



Eesolved, That by the example of his personal efforts in the 

 cause of horticulture, in the introduction, cultivation, and exhibi- 

 tion of new plants for many years, he has left a record honorable 

 to himself and to our Society. 



Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased our 

 sympathy in their great bereavement. 



Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the records 

 and a copy sent to the family of the deceased. 



Marshall P. Wilder, in seconding the resolutions, said that in 

 the death of Mr. Pratt we had the satisfaction of knowing that he 

 was not taken away prematurely, but like a shock of corn ripe for 

 the garner. He was naturall}'^ a lover of the fine arts, inheriting 

 his taster for horticulture from his father, whose garden, containing 

 Brown Beurre and other pear trees, which would be recollected by 

 many, was on the corner of Milk and Pearl streets, adjoining the 

 mansion, which was afterwards the Pearl Street House. 



Mr. Hovey said that Mr. Pratt was the first person to cultivate 

 the dahlia in this country, when it was introduced in its single 

 form. 



The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



