TRANSACTIONS. 



Meeting of the Society, February 18, 1843. 



The President of the Society as Chairman of the Committee on the 

 Distribution of Seeds, reported, — 



That the committee had placed the seeds received from Prof. Fischer 

 in charge of Mr. W. E. Carter, one of the committee, with the understand- 

 ing, that, should any of them prove worthy of introduction into our gardens, 

 seeds, cuttings or plants of the same shall be presented to the members of 

 the Society ; and that Mr. Carter, under direction of Prof. Asa Gray, procure 

 a suitable collection of seeds, including plants of our native phloxes, 

 to be sent to Prof. Fischer, at the Botanic Garden, St. Petersburg. 



Meeting, March 4, 1843. 



The committee to whom was referred the subject of affording pecuniary 

 assistance to the family of the late Robert Manning, ask leave to report : — 



That they hold in grateful remembrance the valuable and praiseworthy 

 exertions which their deceased member, the late Robert Manning, had ren- 

 dered this Society and our country, in the cause of Horticulture, and feel 

 a strong desire to relieve his bereaved family from their present embarrass- 

 ment. But while your committee make this expression of their feelings, 

 ihey wish it to be borne in mind, that, in their opinion, the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society is not an institution for the dispensing of charities, 

 and that an appropriation of its funds for any benevolent purpose, what- 

 ever, might go to establish a dangerous precedent; under this view of the 

 subject, your committee were at a loss how the Society could meet the exi- 

 gency of the case, and contribute the relief solicited. 



One of your committee, however, has had an interview with the family 

 of the late Mr. Manning, and learned from them, that they would be hap- 

 py to respond to the call of this Society in any way in their power, and 

 that, on condition of receiving aid from the Society, they would cheerfully 

 continue to make their usual exhibitions of fruits at our Rooms, together 

 with such new varieties, as may, from time to time, come to notice. 



With such an arrangement as the foregoing, your committee would be 

 somewhat relieved of the embarrassment alluded to, and believing that 

 Pomological science and the interests of this Society would be much bene- 

 fited by the preservation of the collection of fruit trees, which Mr. Man- 

 ning had, for such a series of years, been gathering from various parts of 



