108 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



occupy but little space, it should be considered in providing room 

 for the increase of the library. He suggested that the Chairman 

 of the meeting should bring the subject before the Society at a 

 business meeting. 



Charles M. Hovey regretted that he was not present in season 

 to hear the report of the Professor of Botany, for he had not 

 missed a paper before since these discussions were commenced. 

 He liked to be progressive, and to do what we could for kindred 

 sciences, such as botany and entomology, but thought that if we 

 divided our energies among several branches of science we should 

 accomplish far less than if we concentrated them on the appro- 

 priate work of the Society. The London Horticultural Society is 

 now wrangling over the question whether or not it shall go out of 

 existence, and was long since obliged to sell its fine library and 

 herbarium to discharge its indebtedness. This embarrassment 

 Mr. Hovey attributed to the large amount of money (£30,000) 

 spent on its publications, and to its engaging in enterprises not 

 legitimate to the work for which it was established. Mr. Hovey 

 said we should soon have more botanical books than we could ac- 

 commodate ; he thought we had more now than we ought to have, 

 though he was as fond of books as anj^ member, and had more in 

 his library than he had space to accommodate. The Natural His- 

 tory Society had a large herbarium so near that it was not worth 

 while for us to undertake one, and though he would not refuse 

 specimens that might be presented, this branch should be made in- 

 cidental to the main work of the Society. He had an herbarium of 

 the plants of Cambridge, collected a great many years ago, which 

 he had not looked at for a long time. We should not go into those 

 things which will take up so much room or cost too much money. 



Mr. Rand replied to Mr. Hovey, that he failed to see the pro- 

 priety of the argument drawn from the position of the London 

 Horticultural Society. It was only after the Society had spent too 

 much money for premiums and on their garden, that it went into the 

 projects of which Mr. Hovey complained, in the hope of thereby 

 retrieving its financial position. Mr. Rand diff"ered entirely 

 from Mr, Hovey in regard to the library — he thought we should 

 aim to secure for it every horticultural and botanical publication, 

 and should endeavor to make the herbarium equally complete. He 

 suggested that Mr. Hovey might make a good disposition of his 

 superfluity of books and herbarium specimens b^'^ adding to the 

 collection of the Society such as are not already in it. 



