BIRDS OF THE 

 BOSTON PUBLIC GARDEN 



THE "Memorial History of Boston," 

 edited by Justin Winsor, contains, in the 

 chapter entitled " The Horticulture of Bos- 

 ton and Vicinity," by Marshall Pinckney 

 Wilder, the following account of the origin 

 of the Public Garden: "The origin of this 

 [Public Garden] may be traced to the de- 

 sire of a few citizens who were interested 

 in horticultural improvements and rural 

 embellishments, but more especially in the 

 establishment of a Botanic or a Public Gar- 

 den, similar to those of the cities of the Old 

 World. Among these gentlemen was Mr. 

 Horace Gray, to whose great enterprise and 

 indomitable perseverance we are, perhaps, 

 more than to any other man, indebted for 

 the original idea. . . . Mr. Gray, in 1839, 

 with a few associates, obtained from the 

 city a lease of this marginal area for a Bo- 

 tanic Garden, upon which a greenhouse had 



