iR_:E:ii=>o:FLT 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE ON OKNAMENTAL GARDENING, 



FOR THE YEAR 1873. 



By H. weld fuller, Chairman. 



The Committee on Ornamental Gardening have made very few 

 ofBcial visits during the past season ; but the places they have 

 visited liave been full of interest and instruction. Indeed, the 

 year has afforded great pleasure and profit to our Society, and to 

 the community at large. It ma}' almost be regarded as an epoch 

 in American Horticulture, for it has brought together, and to us, 

 fiom our most distant states, and from neighboring provinces, the 

 leading and progressive spiritsiof the garden, — the very Seers of 

 Nature ! The novel and brilliant Rhododendron Exhibition in 

 June, and the great assembly'- of the American Pomological Society 

 in l;Oston, in September, have left an impress, and given an 

 impulse to Horticulture, which must be apparent in the future. 



For a long time the impression had prevailed that Rhododen- 

 drons, the most captivating and showy of all our native shrubs, 

 could not be transplanted with success, except by experts ; and that 

 Kalrniaa and Azaleas were too treacherous for common use. But 

 the i)ublicutiou3 of our worthy Secretary (Mr. Rand), and the 

 experience^of our gardeners and cultivators, have demonstrated the 

 fact that, with ordinary care, they are as accommodating as a lilac 

 or a currant bush. 



To draw the attention of the public more generally to the 

 merits of these plants, and to promote their introduction, several 

 prominent members of our Society, acting under its sanction, 

 undertook the costly experiment of an 



