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accession of means received from Mount Auburn and the 

 donations of liberal-minded men, it was enabled to ojffer 

 large prizes, which stimulated members to renewed exer- 

 tions in every department of gardening. The donations 

 of Mr. Knight, already noticed, and of Van Mons, had en- 

 riched our gardens with an immense number of foreign 

 pears, more than two hundred and fifty of which had then 

 fruited in the garden of that eminent pomologist, the late 

 Robert Manning of Salem, and from thence had been 

 distributed throughout the State, and to a partial extent 

 throughout the entire country. 



To these had been added, after great research and exten- 

 sive correspondence, almost an equal number of native 

 fruits of superior quality. All were under cultivation in 

 the gardens of numerous amateurs, and the annual exhi- 

 bitions of the Society presented a display of the pear, 

 unequalled, it is believed, either in France or in Belgium the 

 land of pears. Hundreds of new plants and flowers had 

 been introduced from abroad or raised by our cultivators 

 at home, and by the spirit of emulation, encouraged by 

 premiums, these were annually gathered together in such 

 numbers that even the new hall was soon unable to hold 

 them. The largest room in the city was too limited, and in 

 1852 the Society were compelled to pitch their tent in the 

 Public Garden or on the Common, where for two or three 

 seasons were presented to the public a display of fruits 

 not surpassed in the number of kinds, if they have been 

 equalled in the quality of the specimens, since that period. 



