R E P O R T 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE ON GARDENS, 



FOR THE YEAR 1888. 



By JOHN G. BARKER, Chairman. 



We again bring to you a report of our doings for the past sea- 

 son, and although the competition for the various prizes has not 

 been what we had hoped for, still such as have been taken, we 

 think, were for cultivation of a high standard, and we trust that 

 with the accounts of places visited which were not for competition, 

 our report will be found of sufficient interest to assure the Society 

 that we are, in a measure at least, alive to the fact that we are 

 expected to be of some use as the seasons go by. 



Grounds of John L. Gardner. 



On the 26th of Maj', the Committee visited the estate of John 

 L. Gardner, at^rookline, so ably managed by Mr. C. M. Atkinson. 

 The estate contains about forty acres, and is well known to many of 

 the Society as one of the oldest in this vicinity. There are on it many 

 fine old trees of noble growth that give grateful shade and beautiful 

 landscape effect. Upon entering the grounds, our attention was 

 drawn to a fine bed of rhododendrons, opposite the mansion-house, 

 which were in a vigorous and very healthy condition. In the season 

 of flowering they make a magnificent show, and are, moreover, so 

 favorably located that they can be enjoyed from the windows of the 

 house and from the piazza, without a tramp for the special pur- 

 pose of seeing them. Near the house is a very choice collection 



