270 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



exhibitions there was one not set down in the plan that deserves 

 notice ia this report. Quite late in the season, well after Easter. 

 on which day the plants are given so generally lo children of 

 Sunday schools, an application was made to the Chairman for 

 influence to aid in introducing the plan of work into a large 

 Mission School in the city proper. There were over five hundred 

 children in attendance, and the school could secure neither plants 

 nor money. The Committee at that time were in the same condi- 

 tion. With judicious interviewing of two members of the 

 Flower Committee, over three hundred plants were sent to the 

 school lo be distributed on Children's Sunday. Hundreds of small 

 bouquets of Ox-eye Daisies {Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) and 

 other flowers, which had served to decorate a church in Dedham 

 for their children's services, were grouped on the platform around 

 the plants for distribution. 



Included in the services was an address by the Chairman, and 

 one. while distributing plants and pamphlets to the children, by 

 the Treasurer. So earnest were all the teachers that the pastor 

 appointed a special Sunday in the late Fall for awarding the 

 prizes, which work has been done by the Treasurer. 



The cordial interest in the work of the Window Garden Com- 

 mittee is by no means confined to our little world. 



As one branch of the education of children, cultivating the 

 observing faculties while cultivating the plants, it annually 

 interests a larger circle. 



In many places the idea which animated the founders of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society has taken root, and " to 

 promote the love of flowers among the people " is accepted as one 

 of the philanthropic responsibilities of the latter part of the 

 nineteenth century. 



Gentlemen and ladies, members of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, the Treasurer has told you of the financial 

 record of our Committee. It reports a small sum to be returned 

 from your appropriation to the coflfers of the Society. Bear with 

 me a moment while I ask you to consider what the Window 

 Garden Committee endeavors to do for these children. 



They wish to awaken in their young minds an interest in the 

 evidences of God's love and care and to arouse an appreciation of 

 the effect in the household of a few blossoming plants. So far so 

 20od. But one scarcelv realizes what a task is set for the child- 



