TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 55 



[on the reverse.] 



this edifice is erected by the 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



For the purpose of encouraging and improving the Science and 



Practice of Horticulture. 



This Corner Stone laid on the 14th day of September, 1844. 



BUrLDINGr COMMITTEE. 



Marshall P. Wilder, Samuel Walker, J. E. Teschemacher, Josiah Stick- 



ney, John J. Low, Benj. V. French, E. M. Richards, Samuel R. 



Johnson, CM. Hovey, Cheever Newhall, Joseph Breck, 



Henry W. Button, Fred. W. Macondry. 



Richard Bond, Architect. 



BUILDERS. 



Gardner Greenleaf, Nathaniel Adams, C. W. Cushing, Willard Sears, and 



Jonas Fitch. 

 To this Society, the Community are indebted for the Foundation and Con- 

 secration of 

 Mount Aitburn Cemetery. 



The documents alluded to, were the transactions, addresses, &c., of the 

 Society ; a phial hermetically sealed, and encased in powdered charcoal, 

 containing a great variety of flower, fruit and vegetable seeds ; various 

 horticultural, agricultural and political papers of the day, and a variety of 

 the coins of the United States. The whole were sealed up in a leaden box 

 and deposited in the stone at the northwest corner of the building, and the 

 large column designed to stand upon it, lowered to its place. The stone 

 being firmly secured, the President of the Society made a pertinent 

 and appropriate address, in which he took a brief review of the rise 

 and progress of the Society from its infancy ; from the day when lit- 

 erally there were but "two or three gathered together," and contrasted 

 that with its present mature and favorable standing. He alluded to 

 the satisfaction it must afford its founders, some of whom were now 

 present, and the members generally, that in their day the flourishing con- 

 dition of the Society is such as to permit the erecting an edifice for the 

 encouragement and promotion of a science which stands preeminently 

 among the most popular and refined studies of mankind. 



He next referred to the patronage of the community, which had in- 

 creased to an extent beyond the most sanguine expectations of the Society ; 

 to the influence of its efibrts in creating and disseminating a desire for 

 horticultural pursuits and rural life ; to the improved character and unex- 

 ampled increase of fruits and flowers since its organization ; to the uni- 

 versal taste for gardening and ornamental cultivation inspired by the 

 example of its members ; and to the active emulation excited by its public 



