148 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The President, .as Chainnan of the Executive Committee, made 

 the following report : 



At a regular meeting of the Executive Conomittee, held Septem- 

 ber 25, it was voted to recommend to the Society to transfer §30 

 of the appropriation for the Fruit Committee for 1896 to the 

 account of the Flower Committee for the same year, to make up 

 for a deficiency in the amount at the command of the latter. 



The transfer was unanimously authorized. 



The following memorial of Robert Douglas, drawn up by 

 Charles S. Sargent, Chairman of a Committee appointed at the 

 July meeting for that purpose, was read and unanimously adopted : 

 Robert Douglas was born at Gateshead, near Halifax, England, 

 in 1813, and removed to Canada in 1836. Two years later he 

 settled in AVhitingham, Vt., where for a short time he kept the 

 country inn, and in 1844 he made his home on the shores of Lake 

 Michigan, about thirty miles north of Chicago, in what is now the 

 city of Waukegan. Here, a few years later, having been interested 

 in the cultivation of plants since he was a boy, when he lived with 

 his parents in Fallon's Nursery, near Newcastle, he established a 

 small nursery business and found his true occupation ; and here, 

 during the remainder of his life, he devoted himself to raising 

 conifer and other tree seedlings, of which he has distributed 

 millions through the country. More recently Mr. Douglas made, 

 under contract, successful plantations of forest trees in the western 

 prairies, and in his time no one has been more active in increasing 

 the love of planting trees in this country, or has stndied trees 

 from a cultural point of view with greater zeal, intelligence, or 

 success. The mtegrity and purity of the life of Robert Douglas, 

 his total lack of self-seeking, and his unfailing cheerfulness com- 

 manded the respect and affection of all who knew him. 



Charles S. Sargent, -\ 

 J. W. Manning, >- Committee. 



James H. Bowditch, ) 



The Secretar}- read a letter from .Joseph S. Fay, Jr., acknowl- 

 edging, in beluilf of his family, the memorial of his father adopted 

 at the last meeting of the Society, and thanking the Society for it. 



The following vote, offered by Hon. Aaron Low, was unani- 

 mously passed: 



