REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON GARDENING. 133 



for a border, an exquisite ring of Alternanthera amoena, encircling 

 the whole. 



Of lilies, Col. "Wilder has several thousands ; most of them 

 Auratum and LancifoUum. Of his seedlings and hj'brids, ful^ 

 accounts have been given in former reports. Your Committee, 

 however, specially noticed one stock of L. auratum, which had 

 stood in the same place for four years, and had at this time, twenty- 

 three large blooms. The history of the L. lancifoUum in this 

 country, well illustrates the benefits conferred by the introducers 

 of new plants, which not unfrequently are costly experiments. 

 In the j^ear 1837, Col. Wilder paid five guineas in England for a 

 single bulb, and now the poor can obtain them here for a mere 

 trifle. 



Camellias, the largest in this country, stood in the shade, and 

 among them, some large white varieties, and the original plant of 

 the famous Mrs. Abby Wilder, which, with its companion, Camellia 

 Wilderi, were the only tivo out of a collection of eight hundred, 

 that were saved from the fire which destroyed his greenhouse in 

 1839. This queen of Camellias is now twelve feet high, and is 

 always an object of great interest and affection. 



It being too late in the evening to enter the greenhouses, the 

 Committee only noticed the vigorous growth of a Concord grape- 

 vine, planted near the corner, which, after running thirty-two feet 

 along the gutter, turned on the gable end and ran up about twenty 

 feet more. This visit, though short and informal, conferred great 

 pleasure, as everything connected with our honored and beloved 

 associate always does. Your Committee returned renewedly im- 

 pressed with his untiring energy and his life-long devotion to the 

 interests of Horticulture, and the advancement of the public good. 



Visit to Glen Ridge. 



On the thirteenth of September, your Committee, with several 

 invited guests, availed themselves of the invitation of E. S. Rand, 

 Jr., Esq., to visit Glen Ridge, and inspect the works lately erected 

 by him to furnish, at a proper elevation, an ample supply of water. 



The day was unpropitious, being very stormy ; but the prover- 

 bial hospitality of the host made all bright ivithin doors, aud the 

 unceasing rain tvithout did not prevent the company from examin- 

 ing, enjoying and admiring the extensive improvements of the sea- 

 son. Fields, which were lately in the rough, had been converted 



