42 
quantities of its flowers, white changing to red, were cut weekly for 
indoor decoration. 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM. 
Before entering into details respecting this unique establishment, it 
may be as well to give a short summary of its history. The following 
extract is from an article by Mrs. M. C. Robbins in the April number 
of “The Century" for the current year:—* About the yéar 1870, 
“ Mr. James Arnold, of New Bedford, « native of Providence, Rhode 
? 
* bequest of 100,000 dollars to three trustees, to be employed as seemed 
" to them, for the improvement of agriculture or horticulture. 
* His friend and trustee, Mr. George B. rS whose classical 
* report on the trees and shrubs of Massachusetts is well known, 
* recommended that this money should be devoted to founding an 
* Arboretum, to be called by Arnold’s name. . . . . . . . . 
* Accordingly it was agreed that if the Harvard corporation would set 
i 5 acres for the purpose, the sum should be allowed to 
* accumulate until it amounted to 150,000 dollars, and then be used 
* forthe purpose above named. Harvard University owned at that 
** time a tract of land of some 300 acres in Jamaica Plain. . . . . 
* This land was partly peat-bog and meadow and partly scantily 
“ wooded upland, where were a few fine trees, a stretch of pasture, and 
“a noble grove of hemlocks crowning a hill. e hundred and 
“ twenty-five acres of this land the University consented to set apart 
* forthis purpose, and by an agreement between the municipality of 
* Boston and the corporation of Harvard University, the city has 
preservation, and whose work in dendrology, are well known 
a 
the work of organising the Arboretum has proceeded rapidly under his 
inistration H 
* known about trees, which nowhere can be taught more completely." 
The upper floor of this building contains the Herbarium and Library, 
the latter in all probability the best working dendrological library in 
existence ; the lower is devoted to the purposes of a museum, in which 
will be arranged the specimens of timber, &c. Here will be kept 
for reference an extraordinary series of specimens, t.e., those which 
furnished the data for the phenomenal sets of tables which appea 
wae | v 
co-efficient of elasticity, modulus of rupture, resistance to longitudinal 
pressure, resistance to indentation, and weight of a cubic foot in pounds, 
of very nearly every species of tree in the United States. It will also 
