REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OX GARDENS FOR THE 



YEAR 1909. 



BY CHARLES W. PARKER, CHAIRM.AX. 



The Committee on Gardens of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society has to report for the year 1909 that the number of entries 

 and visits made has been the largest in recent years. Eighteen 

 estates and gardens in ^Massachusetts and Connecticut have been 

 inspected which are reported upon as follows: 



Miss Mary S. Ames' Garden, North Easton. 



The first visit of the season was made May 18 to Langwater 

 Gardens, the estate of Miss Mary S. Ames at North Easton, which 

 had been entered for the prizes offered by the Society for a garden 

 of spring-flowering plants. 



This grand estate, of which William N. Craig is the superin- 

 tendent, comprises an area of five hundred acres, and presents an 

 agreeable combination of the cultivated and natural in landscape 

 art. The features which most impress the visitor are the great 

 stretches of handsome, well-kept lawns, framed in borders of 

 shrubbery and trees, and the fine, open woodlands, amidst which 

 is planted a great variety of spring-flowering plants and ferns. 



On wooded banks were colonies of trilliums, violets, primroses, 

 and narcissi in flower, and the borders of a good-sized pond were 

 decorated with masses of jonquils and azaleas. The flowering 

 dogwood in both pink and white varieties was conspicuous in the 

 adjoining woods^ while nearer at hand handsome shrubs of Kerria 

 ja'ponica, Rhododendron Vaseyi, and numerous varieties of lilacs 

 all in luxuriant bloom, attracted attention. 



The special object of the visit, however, was the inspection of the 

 collection of late-flowering tulips of which there were forty or more 

 varieties of the Darwin and Cottage classes. These stately flowers, 



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