16 



and Marie Louise — then little known, but since famous for 

 their great excellencies — ripened their luscious fruit, en- 

 thusiasm had reached its highest point. Individual efforts 

 were too limited, and a society was talked of to aid in the 

 introduction as well as dissemination of still other new 

 fruits, especially the pears of Van Mons, which had just be- 

 fore begun to attract the notice of cultivators throughout 

 Europe and this country. Even the cultivation of some of 

 our native pears began to be a subject of consideration, 

 though these had hitherto been ignored, especially such as 

 had not the supposition of foreign origin, so strong was 

 the belief, even by Mr. Lowell, that it was scarcely possible 

 to find natives of so much excellence as the Andrews, 

 Gushing, Seckel and others. But these were submitted to 

 the ordeal of a trial, and were acknowledged to be equal 

 to those from abroad. 



But enough had been done to stir up a spirit of im- 

 provement and stimulate to renewed exertions, and as the 

 speediest means of arousing the public to. the importance 

 of Horticultural art, a society, upon the model, so far as 

 possible, of the London Horticultural Society, was talked 

 of in private, and publicly discussed in the New England 

 Farmer, and an announcement was made that a meeting 

 would be held for this object. On the twenty-fourth day 

 of February, 1829, this took place at the office of Zebedee 

 Cook, Jr., in State Street, at which the Hon. John Lowell 

 presided. Sixteen gentlemen were present, and a commit- 

 tee of three, of which Gen. Dearborn was chairman, was 



