ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WALCOTT. 7 



ful ; the Spring Exhibition and the Eose Show markedly so. The 

 Annual Exhibition was, even in the absence of one of the most 

 important collections gonerally shown, crowded with plants of the 

 first merit, that should have had, for a becoming display, three 

 times the floor space that could in pur present quarters be given 

 to them. 



The Chrysanthemum Exhibition, in illustration perhaps of one 

 of those changes in popular taste which so often occur, did not 

 bring in the usual number of visitors ; nor was the show itself 

 equal to those of preceding years — not from lack of skill on the 

 part of our growers, but rather from some unknown climatic con- 

 ditions of such general influence that collections of this plant ap- 

 pear to have suffered all over this State at least. 



The weekly exhibitions through the summer attracted more visi- 

 tors than ever before, and were of superior merit to those of former 

 years. 



Several exhibitors brought to the halls, week after week, collec- 

 tions of our native plants and flowers, unequalled hitherto in number 

 or in the varieties exhibited. Many of them would be valuable 

 additions to our gardens, and all of them were objects of interest. 



It seems to me altogether fortunate that we have been able to 

 attract to our halls those lovers of our native plants who have 

 neither the money nor the time to enable them to make botanizing 

 expeditions into the country ; and on the other hand to show to 

 another class what they might discover if they expended time and 

 money in a tour through our suburbs ; and lastly, very many have 

 examined these displays thoroughly for the purpose of improvijg 

 their knowledge of our native plants, and learning the correct 

 names for specimens which they may have themselves collected. 



The Botanic Garden of Harvard College has made, through the 

 year, a series of valuable and instructive exhibitions. The author- 

 ities of the garden have wisely- and considerately abstained from 

 the competitions for prizes. It is to be hoped that they will feel 

 encouraged by the success of the past season to go on with the 

 exhibition here of objects of horticultural interest, and that they 

 may also see the way clear to come to us as teachers in some of 

 the many unanswered questions of plant cultivation. 



We should moreover have a better knowledge of the diseases 

 of plants. Up to a very recent period we have been satisfied, or 

 rather have been forced to content ourselves, with the study of 



