Annual Meeting.] 
292 
[May 6, 
mentioned, whenever the friends of the Society shall 
have raised for the establishment and endowment of the 
Gardens and Aquaria the sum of two hundred thousand 
dollars. The Council of the Society has further been 
authorized by the Society at large to proceed with such 
establishment whenever the sum named has been raised 
for that express purpose, with certain provisions which 
guarantee the integrity of the funds. Convinced that it 
would not be wise to attempt to begin with the three 
proposed divisions at the same time, the Council further 
obtained consent to the beginning of operations at City 
Point with the same provisions as before, whenever one 
third of the required sum shall have been obtained. 
THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY THEIR 
PROPER GUARDIAN. 
Our Natural History Society is an institution well 
known to the Boston public. It celebrated its semi-cen- 
tennial ten years ago. It was through its initiative that 
the State Survey in the last generation was instituted, and 
its members were selected to carry it out ; this they did 
to such good purpose that it has served as a model to 
other States, and some of the works produced are regarded 
as classics. The Society obtained from the State the land 
on which its building now stands, and it has so well mer- 
ited the confidence of the citizens of Boston that it has 
received large endowments from them, and notably the 
means of building its present home. It has taken a prom- 
inent and effective part in educational matters, as the 
reports of the Superintendent of Schools and the Super- 
visors will testify. It also places freely before the public 
its treasures accumulated through decades of hard work 
