212 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



It is a mattei' of congratulation that our materials for landscape 

 gardening have been so largely increased during the last twenty 

 or thirty years. China and Japan, the East and West Indies, 

 Australia, Africa, Mexico, Brazil, and the Cape of Good Hope 

 have been placed under contribution, and our own florists have 

 produced by hybridization some of the most precious of our floral 

 train. If all these acquisitions should be taken from us, what a 

 void would appear ! Go where we will, some of these will be 

 there. 



Truly, we owe a debt of gratitude to those who have expended 

 so much and done so much for the public good. The number of 

 decorative plants and products introduced and distributed by our 

 horticulturists is remarkable. Things of doubtful character or 

 hardiness often prove valuable acquisitions ; and the free inter- 

 change of knowledge adds much to the useful as well as ornamental. 

 Our great esculent, the potato, was but partially known in the 

 time of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and when afterwards it was carried 

 into Burgundy its use and culture there was interdicted. The 

 Solanum tuberosum was supposed to possess the dangerous quali- 

 ties of the deadly nightshade and to produce leprosy and disease. 

 The gentlemen of Massachusetts have recently added to our 

 resources some of the rarest and most desirable evergreen trees of 

 the world. Boston has done her full share in these experimental 

 efforts, and her environs will compare favorably with those of any 

 other city on this continent. 



Having made these preliminary and somewhat desultory obser- 

 vations, your Committee will now pass to 



Glen Ridge. 



In their last report, mention was made of the new Greenhouse and 

 new Grapery of Edward S. Rand, Jr., erected in the year previous, 

 and of his intention to enter them for prizes the present year. 

 This was done in January last, and, as his orchids are mostlj' of 

 the winter-blooming varieties, your Committee visited them in 

 February. The day was stormy ; the snow several inches deep and 

 saturated with water ; but the zeal and hospitality of the host made 

 compensation. The two houses, which were at some distance apart, 

 were described in our report of 1872. The whole length of the 

 Greenhouse is about 135 feet, and its width 20 feet. It is divided 



