312 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Jul}' and August had notified us that the}' could not exhibit 

 their plants if they were to carry home another, and their 

 parents Ihouglit it too stormy for the little ones to come. In 

 spite of the discouraging weather, all the plants were distributed 

 to glad recipients. Clergymen, teachers of mission schools, and 

 philanthropic workers among the occupants of cheerless tene- 

 ments, came and approved. 



In March, by a vote of the Society, action on a paper on 

 " Horticultural Education for Children," read by Henry L. Clapp, 

 Principal of the George Putnam School, Roxbury, was referred 

 to this Committee. 



General cooperation throughout the State among pupils of the 

 public schools was desired to secure the object in view. Cir- 

 culars were distributed generally, offering prizes for the best 

 collections of dried plants, ferns, or grasses, and giving all 

 details as to paper suitable for the work ; and the proposition 

 was made that all such collections, when correctly named, if not 

 classified, should be the nucleus of a town herbarium. Records 

 of the flowers, grasses, ferns, birds, and insects, found in each 

 town, would be of lasting benefit. 



In response to this, two collections were offered, and the prize 

 of two dollars was awarded to Gilman H. Hitchings for ferns, and 

 the same to Phillips Barry for flowers. Please notice the fact that 

 these collections were cori-ectly labelled according to Gray, and 

 that the lads were under thirteen years of age. Young Barry also 

 received the first prize for a collection of native flowers, in forty- 

 nine vases. The correct naming of the Asters and Solid.igos 

 would have severely taxed the botanical ability of the majority of 

 the members of this Society. He also showed four plants rarely 

 grown here. On the label of a pot of Sedum honidulum, I 

 think, was this notice: " The bit of plant, from which these pots 

 have been grown, came from Europe in a botanical press. I 

 soaked it out and planted it." This thoughtfulness in so young 

 a lad is rarer than his plants, but much can be accomplished by 

 training the faculties to observe details. 



Cordially desiring to find inexpensive plants easily grown in 

 windows, the Chairman attended, at some sacrifice, the sessions 

 of the Convention of American Elorists held in the halls of this 

 Society. But it was very evident that the writer of the paper adver- 

 tised, and his fellow-members, had little conception of the needs 



