308 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



From such work every observer and exhibitor may learu that care 

 iu every particular is necessary to insure a fine exhibit. 



The labelling was much more correct than in any previous year 

 of our exhibition ; but the Committee were unable to identify 

 some I'are specimens, owing to a lack of such herbarium specimens 

 as it was suggested last year that this Society should have for 

 permanent reference. 



In 1894 twenty-eight children exhibited sheets of leaves, two on 

 a sheet, to the number of eight hundred. The work bore 

 evidence of haste and transitory interest, and the Committee 

 concluded that it was not of sufficient educational value to be 

 continued. They restricted the work on leaves to sprays mounted 

 on regular botanical sheets, which are twice the size of the sheets 

 used by the children for leaves last year ; consequently, a large 

 number of leaf contributors dropped out, there being but one 

 contributor this year. Nevertheless, the quality of the whole 

 exhibition has been obviously improved. 



Sedges, grasses, and ferns, which require more careful study 

 and are more difficult to name correctly than flowering plants, 

 taken together were more numerous than last year. There was a 

 gain in sedges and grasses and a loss in ferns. Sedges and leaf 

 sprays of shrubs were displayed at our exhibition this year for 

 the first time. 



The service that some of these young botanists have rendered 

 and are likely to render in botanical work may be indicated by 

 mentioning some of the donations of herbarium specimens which 

 they have already made. The following notice was taken from 

 the "Jamaica Plain News : " 



"Arthur C. Faxon of School street, has lately made and 

 presented to the George Putnam school a most valuable collection, 

 consisting of the pressed and mounted leaves of eighty-four 

 native trees of Massachusetts. Many of the sheets contain the 

 flower and fruit in addition to the leaves, and the specimens are 

 so gracefully arranged as to testify to Master Faxon's artistic 

 skill in grouping, while the careful mounting and labelling make 

 the collection an instructive guide to a knowledge of our own 

 trees. Such earnest and accurate work cannot fail to have a stim- 

 ulating effect upon the many children whose privilege it will be to 

 examine it, and the school is much indebted to Master Faxon for 

 this important waymark in its study of nature." 



