Boston City (part 21 of 67)

Conspicuous among the gardens in the early part of this century, scattered over Pemberton Hill from Southack's Court, now Howard Street, to Beacon Street and around the Capitol, was that of Dr. James Lloyd, father of our Senator in Congress, running back to Somerset Street, where a house built by his son, the Hon. James Lloyd, is still standing.

On Tremont Street, nearly opposite King's Chapel, was the estate of Lieut. -Governor William Phillips, formerly the residence of Peter Faneuil,6 whose gardens and grounds are said to have been very fine ; and here, it is also said, Andrew, uncle of Peter, built the first greenhouse in New England.

But the most conspicuous, extensive, and elegant garden of those days was that of Gardiner Greene, who also had one of the early greenhouses in Boston. The grounds were terraced, and planted with vines, fruits, orna¬ mental trees, flowering shrubs and plants, and were to me when I visited them, sixty-five years ago, a scene of beauty and enchantment which I shall never forget.7 Here were growing, in the open air, Black Hamburg and

Rosalie G. Russell. Hutchinson appears to have been fond of rural life, and was himself a prac¬ tical cultivator, having grafted bv his own hand a tree for Mrs. Jeremy Smith, with the St. Michael pear. This tree, with some of the remains of his orchards, survived until nearly the present time. He also planted the old button-wood trees on the sides of the road on Milton Hill. Letter of Edmund J. Baker.

White Chasselas grapes, apricots, nectarines, peaches, pears, and plums in perfection, presenting a scene which made a deep impression on my mind, and which gave me some of those strong incentives that have governed me in the cultivation of fruits and flowers. Here were many ornamental trees,

; one of which, the Salisburia adiantifolia, the Japan Ginkgo tree, was removed, through the personal efforts of the late Dr. Jacob Bigelow, and -planted on the upper Mall of the Common, where it now stands.

Nearly down to Tremont Street was the house of the late Dr. Samuel A. Shurtleff, one of the early vice-presidents of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in whose garden was originated the Shurtleff grape and other fruits now growing on his estate in Brookline.1

One of the largest gardens of that day was that of Governor James Bowdoin. He had a large house and an extensive lot of land on Beacon Street, at the corner of Bowdoin Street, reaching quite over the hill to what is now Ashburton Place.1 There he had a garden abounding in the finest fruits, - pears and peaches, apples and grapes. The Hon. James Bowdoin, his son, lived on Milk Street, in the house where our honored citizen the Hon. Robert C. IVinthrop was born. It was known as the " Mansion House," and had a garden extending back almost to Franklin Street, which was filled with fruit trees of the best sorts. Here General Henry Dearborn, of Revolutionary memory, who married the widow of Mr. Bowdoin, resided for a while; and his son, General H. A. S. Dearborn, the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was familiar with that garden, and from it he probably gained some of the zeal which characterized him as a leader in horticulture. Of this garden says Mr. Winthrop: "There were no more delicious Saint Michael, Brown Beurre, Monsieur Jean, or Saint Germain pears to be found anywhere in Boston than I have eaten from those trees." 2

Another garden, which was spread around the present site of the Revere House, was that of Kirk Boott, an eminent merchant, and one of the found¬ ers of Lowell. It was the home of John Wright Boott and William Boott. Here, fifty years ago, were fruit-trees and vines ; and foreign grapes and other tender fruits, which now succeed only under glass, grew in the open air. Here was also a greenhouse with a choice collection of plants. Some of these were obtained from the Duke of Bedford and others in England, through the acquaintance which Dr. Francis Boott, a brother and a cele¬ brated botanist in London, had with such growers. The collection of amaryllises and orchids was the best in the country, - the latter having been the first attempt in New England in the culture of this tribe of plants. Here, forty years ago, was a magnificent specimen of the Phaius grandiflora (now Bletia Tankervillece) , then a rare plant.3

Perrin May, a retired old merchant of Boston, was a skilful cultivator of fruits. His garden was on Washington Street, at the South End, where he produced remarkable specimens of fruits, and especially the pear, whose success he attributed partly to the entrapping of cats and fertiliz¬ ing the soil with them.

Summer Street was for a long time one of the most delightful in the city, and well merited its name. Here, in the early part of this century, were

2 Letter of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. Mr. island was quite celebrated more than half a Bowdoin had also a large farm at Dorchester, century ago ; and Mr. Winthrop adds : " I doubt now known as Mount Bowdoin, where he had if any one in Massachusetts did more for agrian orchard of apple and pear trees. He also culture and horticulture at that period than experimented with fruit-trees on Naushon Island, James Bowdoin, the son of the Governor." now the property of the Hon. John M. Forbes. 3 Mr. Boott presented these to the Hon. John His main attention was, however, given to A. Lowell, from whence some of the orchids horses, cows, and sheep ; the breeding of the went to the collection of Edward S. Rand of latter is still continued. This estate was in the Dedham, and to which he made large additions care of the father of Mr. Winthrop, for many by importation from Europe, and they were years after the death of his uncle, Mr. Bowdoin; finally given by him and his friend James Lawand says Mr. Winthrop, " I have worn clothes rence to the Botanic Garden at Cambridge.

the residences of Joseph Barrell,1 Governor James Sullivan (afterward William Gray's), Benjamin Bussey, Nathaniel Goddard, Henry Hill, and David Ellis (father of the Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis), whose gardens were supplied with the fruits and flowers of those days, and in them peaches and foreign grapes, and the old pears of which we have spoken, ripened every year.

Other old gardens on Summer Street and in its vicinity were those of Amory and Salisbury, beside that of Edmund Quincy, which ran back to Bedford Street; Judge Jackson's, on the corner of Bedford and Chauncy streets, where the building of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association now stands, and where the Rowe estate was.2

The great event in the progress of our horticulture during the present century was the establishment of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1S29. "Its first president was General Henry Alexander Scammel Dear¬ born, whose name will ever be gratefully remembered, and to whom we are more indebted than to any other man, in its early history, for its prestige and popularity both at home and abroad. . . . From its first president down to the present time the Society has been fortunate in securing gen¬ tlemen to fill the chair, all of whom have been lovers of rural art. Dear¬ born, Cook, Vose, Walker, Cabot, Breck, and Stickney have gone before us; but, thanks to a kind Providence, ITovey, Hyde, Strong, Parkman, Gray, Hayes, and the writer are still spared to labor in carrying out the beneficent designs of its noble founders." 8 But perhaps the most bene¬ ficial act of the Society was in founding that " Garden of Graves," the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and from this the Society has already received large sums of money, and is entitled to a perpetual share of its income in the future.4

" On Green and Chardon streets was Mr. Samuel Parkman's estate with a large garden ; on Green Street that of Mr. Samuel Gore, and one other large estate, owner's name forgotten ; on Bowdoin Square and Chardon Street, estate of Governor Gore, garden and land; the estates of Joseph Coolidge, 2d, and Kirk Boott. On Cambridge and Middlecot, now Bowdoin Street, was the large estate of Joseph Coolidge the elder, of Mr. Mackey, and much vacant land on the west ; on what is now Tremont Street, the gardens of Dr. Danforth, Dr. Lloyd, Gardiner Greene, and Governor Phillips, extending to high land, and including the Bow¬ doin estate, and perhaps others. On Beacon Hill was a monument, with a gilt eagle on its top. I regret the de¬ struction of this hill and monument, but it was invaded and destroyed by parties known as improvers ; and this healthy gravel and fertile loam, as well as that on Pemberton Hill, were removed and dumped into the filthy Mill Pond. I hope the only remaining classical hill, the Copp's, will be preserved for all time. On Summer Street was the garden of William Gray, who defined ' enough ' as ' a little more ; ' that of Benjamin Bussey, and that of Samuel P. Gardner, which bore some very fine pears not now known. On Beacon Street was the large estate of Governor Hancock, extending to Belknap (changed by Cornelius Coolidge to Joy) Street, and northerly to Mt. Vernon Street; and of Dr. Joy, from Beacon to Mt. Vernon Street. There was south of Walnut Street a large lot of land extending to Charles River, with a small powder-house and a spring of water on the same.*

"You will perceive that the old town of Boston is very much altered from what it was at the date of my memo¬ randum In my opinion it was a much pleasanter place to reside in than it is at present. I w'as pleased with your kindly recollection of me, and I hope you will continue to enjoy your fondness for horticulture, flowers, etc., for many years."

While we have no space to dwell on our long-preserved Common, with its lawns and fountains, its malls and monument, we must not forget the Public Garden of Boston. The origin of this may be traced to the desire 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 Garden, similar to those of the cities of the Old World. Among these gentlemen was Mr. Horace Gray (father of our Chief-Justice Gray), to whose great enterprise and indomitable perseverance we are, perhaps, more than to any other man indebted for the original idea. Mr. Gray had a small conservatory attached to his town house in Kingston Street, in which was kept a good collec¬ tion of camellias and other hard-wooded plants, with a general assortment supplied from his greenhouses at Brighton, where he had for the growth of grapes several houses in different styles of construction, but all with curved roofs, - of which he was a great advocate. Mr. Gray, in 1839, with a few associates, obtained from the city a lease of this marginal area for a Botanic Garden, upon which a greenhouse had been built, while the grounds were partially laid out with a variety of ornamental trees and plants. A company was organized, of which Mr. Gray was chairman, and went zealously to work. A very large circus building situated just back of the corner, west of Beacon and Charles streets, was converted into an immense conservatory for plants and birds. This had four galleries, to each of which plants were assigned according to a proper classification. It became a place of great attraction for the public until the building and the entire collection were destroyed by fire.1

The adjacent grounds were filled up and the garden was enlarged by the city, with the provision that it was never to be built on. In 1859 these grounds became our Public Garden,2 and in i860 it was remodelled by lay¬ ing out and planting on a definite and proper plan. This garden embraces about twenty-four acres of land, and contains a choice collection of orna¬ mental trees,3 shrubs, and plants ; and in the summer season ninety thou¬ sand bedded plants make it an object of splendor and interest.

" I was engaged by Dr. Boott of London, through Dr. John Lindley, Secretary of the London Horticultural Society's Gardens at Chiswick. I left England in pine, 1839, arriving in the United States in August, and took charge of the Boston Public Garden on the 7th of that month, under a three years' engagement.

" I found a large and, at that time, a very fine collection of plants, especially Camellias, among which were some of the largest plants in the country, notably Alba plenas , one of which was said to have been raised from a cutting by the late Dr. Dixwell, of Boston. Also quite a number of grafted standard trees, with fine heads, of all the old varieties, such as Gilesii, Chandleri, Elegans, Floyi, Flume's blush, Duchesse d'Orleans, Donklaerii, with many French varieties, and all imported plants. Among

"The Conservatory. - We advise our friends who are as usual seeking amusement during the Christmas holi¬ days not to omit looking in at the Public Conservatory. There are above one thousand Camellia Japonica plants, some of the largest now in full splendor, and others on the point of bursting their beautiful buds. Among them are at least twenty full-grown trees ten to thirty years old. It is well known that the former' possessor of this superb col¬ lection of Camellias, Marshall P. Wilder, of Dorchester, spared neither pains nor expense to procure the finest plants from the justly celebrated nurseries in Europe, and that his most recent and highly estimated seedling varieties are com¬ prised in it. Eut it is not too well known that one of his motives for disposing of this collection to the society, at a great pecuniary sacrifice to himself, was the desire that his fellow-citizens might conveniently and frequently enjoy the pleasure of viewing it. It is calculated that during the next five or six weeks several thousand Camellia blossoms will expand ; hundreds are now in full bloom, and contrast beau¬ tifully with the dark glossy foliage." - Ed.]

Dixwell, in his study on Allston Street, and purchased of him by the writer, about fifty years since, for the sum of thirty dollars. This camellia was burned down nearly to its root, but afterward sprouted again. It then went to Mr. Jonathan French of Roxbury, and thence to William E. Baker, Ridge Hill Farm, Wellesley, where it is now in a green old age.

2 [The annexed view of the Public Garden represents it in its present condition. The tower on the left is that of the Providence Railroad Station. The spire in the middle distance is that of the Arlington Street Church, occupied by the same parish which worshipped in Federal Street under Dr. Channing. On the right the low tower is that of Trinity, of which a full view is given in the chapter on "Architecture." The taller one is of the Congregational Church on Berkeley Street. - Ed.]

Public Garden

other greenhouse plants, many of the most showy new Holland plants then in fashion - some varieties of Chinese Azaleas, Ericas, and a variety of tropical plants, - as Strelitzias, Sago Palm, Bananas, Hibiscus, Eugenias (Rose-apple) and a large collection of Cape bulbs and Amaryllis, Pelargoniums, many of Beck's and Cock's (of London)

The Conservatory and two other houses were erected on land west of Charles Street. The conservatory was a very large structure, and had an imposing appearance ; but was m a bad position, being exposed to the cold winds of the Back Bay and m severe winter weather was difficult to manage. There was also a fine collection of

" The gardens were only partly laid out, from the nature of the land ; which being from four to six feet below the street level, and filled in with all sorts of city refuse was a great part of it subject to the inroads of the tide. However, a fine broad walk was aid from the entrance at the foot of Beacon Street to the end of the Common, with a border planted with ornamental trees, shrubbery, standard roses, herbaceous and other plants, which had a fine appearance. A few large beds, cut out wherever the soil would admit ot it, were planted with the Dahlia, of which there was a good collection.

There was also imported from Groom of Walworth, England, a complete bed of prize tulips, the first ever imported into the United States, valued at $1000, but cost¬ ing Mr. Gray $1500, and which for a time was a great attraction. Mr. Gray supported the place during the time I had charge of it, and I always understood that he was the leading spirit m its establishment. He devoted much of his time and means to aid in its success, and, in connection with the late Mr. Teschemacher,1 did more to that end than any other person. The two great difficulties in the case arose, I think, from the nature of the ground, which rendered it impossible to plant the proper kinds of orna¬ mental trees, which in their growth would have improved and changed in a short time the character of the place ; also from the want of the conservatory and other glass, which would have been very effective on the place."

Among the most potent agents in the promotion of horticulture at the beginning of the present century was the establishment of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, which has ever exercised a happy influence on hor¬ ticulture and the knowledge of plants. It had for its early patron the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, which in 1801 gave a liberal subscription to establish a Professorship of Natural History; and this led to the planting of the Botanic Garden,2 at Harvard University: and this again has exerted a direct influence on the taste which ultimately led to the formation of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.3

1 Professor James E. Teschemacher, after- 3 History of the Massachusetts Horticultural ward corresponding secretary of the Massa- Society, p. 40. Under the direction of professors chusetts Horticultural Society, who was one of Thomas Nuttall, Thaddeus William Harris Asa the most eminent botanists and chemists of our Gray, and Charles S. Sargent, it has had a worldday: wide reputation, and now, under the direction

Transactions for the Massachusetts Society of Professor George L. Goodale, is in a very for the Promotion of Agriculture, New Series, satisfactory condition. An effort is now making vol. i. p. 28. for its permanent endowment.

The Bussey Institution1 and the Arnold Arboretum at Jamaica Plain, also departments of Harvard University, give promise of great usefulness, not only in promoting Agriculture and Arboriculture, but as prominent agents in advancing the cause of Horticulture and a knowledge of the endless variety of trees and plants, of which, under the direction of Professor Sargent the curator, there are now growing in the Arboretum two thousand five hundred species. The funds for the establishment of the Bussey In¬ stitution were derived from the bequest of Benjamin Bussey; and those for the Arboretum from James Arnold of New Bedford, who constituted the late Dr. George B. Emerson and others trustees, with authority to appro¬ priate such funds for this purpose. These institutions are in a prosperous condition, each carrying out the objects for which they were designed.2

Our account of suburban gardens and estates, almost entirely the crea¬ tion of Boston taste and wealth, must be briefer than we could wish. We begin with regions now within our municipality.

In Dorchester were the gardens and orchards of some of the first settlers, and some of the old pear-trees planted by them have survived to the present time. Of those in the present century, which have been more or less noted, we may mention the estates of the Rev. Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris,3 Wil¬ liam Clapp, Ebenezer T. Andrews (the partner of Isaiah Thomas), Samuel Downer, Cheever Newhall, Zebedee Cook, Elijah Vose, William Oliver, John Richardson, William R. Austin. From other gardens have gone forth many of the choice fruits which are now in cultivation, such as the Downer cherry, the Andrews, Frederick Clapp, Harris, Clapp's Favorite, and other seedling pears, and we hope the last named may endure even longer than the marble on which its form is engraved in Forest Hills Cemetery;4 and to these we might add the Dorchester blackberry, the President Wilder straw¬ berry, and just over the borders of Dorchester, in Milton, the Diana grape,

1 The property of Woodland Hill was given to Harvard College on the following conditions; namely : " That they will establish there a course of instruction in practical agriculture, in useful and ornamental gardening, in botany, and in such other branches of natural sciences as may tend to promote a knowledge of practical agri¬ culture and the various arts subservient thereto and connected therewith, and cause such course of lectures to be delivered there, at such seasons of the year and under such regulations as they may think best adapted to promote the ends de¬ signed; and also to furnish gratuitous aid, if they shall think it expedient, to such meritorious persons as may resort there for instruction. The institution so established shall be called the 'Bussey Institution.'" - Thomas Motley's Letter.

Motley, was purchased by Mr. Bussey in 1S15 ; and here he afterward planted orchards of vari¬ ous fruits, pears, plums, and peaches, especially of the apple and cherries (largely Mazzard), as Mr. Bussey used to say, for the birds; "for we found they were quite fond of cherries, and took their full share." Letter of Thojnas Alotley.

8 Dr. Harris was a lover of fine fruit, and once said to the writer: "Your exhibition of pears is grand; but there is one variety that I miss, - the Bon Chretien (the Good Christian). I shall bring some from my garden to-morrow."

4 The Massachusetts Agricultural Club, de¬ siring to name this pear for the writer, and to disseminate it for general cultivation, offered Mr. Clapp one thousand dollars for the control of it ; but he declined, preferring to give to it the name it now bears. On these grounds have been origi¬ nated from seed many other fine pears, and from these grounds large quantities of choice fruits are annually sent to market.

raised by Mrs. Diana Crehore.1 This was brought to notice in 1843, being the first seedling American grape at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which was deemed worthy of notice.

Zebedee Cook, the second president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, some fifty years since had a large garden opposite the Andrews estate, on the east side of the then turnpike-road, where he successfully grew several kinds of foreign grapes, apricots, peaches, and pears. Among the grapes was a white variety named Horatio, after Mr. Horatio Sprague, Consul at Gibraltar, from whom he received it, - known now as the Nice grape.

Mr. Newhall was a distinguished cultivator, and the first treasurer of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. His orchards were extensive, embrac¬ ing a large number of varieties, especially of the pear, which he cultivated with success until about three years since, when he died at the age of ninety.2

Samuel Downer,3 one of the founders of the Horticultural Society, had a large orchard, which still remains in good order, and until recently was under the intelligent care of his son, the late Samuel Downer, Jr.4 He was an early, enterprising, and useful member, and took a deep interest in pomology until his death at eighty years of age. He was especially inter¬ ested in the origin and character of native fruits, and, as he used to say, he loved to be " mousing" after new varieties, especially such as were of native origin.

Elijah Y ose, the third president of the Horticultural Society, had a fine plantation of fruits, and he grew some to great perfection, - especially the Duchesse d'Angouleme pear, which sometimes, for extraordinary speci¬ mens, commanded from seventy-five cents to a dollar each.

William Oliver, Vice-president of the Horticultural Society, hgd a good orchard of pears and other fruits on an estate which, after his death, became the residence of ex-Governor Henry J. Gardner.

Another very old garden in Dorchester, of which our valued citizen Mr. John Richardson has been the occupant and owner for a long course of years, deserves a record. The house 6 was the birthplace of Edward Everett, and is understood to have been built in colonial times by Governor Oliver, who is supposed to have laid out the garden, which is now interesting for

1 Who still lives at the advanced age of through with his own bayonet, and said : " It was eighty-four years. not ten minutes before I got another good shot."

1 Mr. Newhall's place was once the residence Dr. Downer was in prison in Halifax, from which of Thomas Motley, father of the historian John he escaped; was also in the Dartmoor and the Lothrop Motley, and of his brother Thomas Forten prisons for a while, and was in several Motley, the President of the Massachusetts So- desperate engagements under John Paul Jones, ciety for Promoting Agriculture, who were here both as sailor and surgeon. He was engaged born. in the expedition up the Kennebec to Canada.

3 He was son of the celebrated Dr. Downer, Massachusetts awarded him fifteen dollars for "the fighting surgeon," who had a personal en- the loss of his surgical instruments. Letter of counter with a British soldier on his return from Samuel Dcnmier , Jr.

its old trees and antique appearance, but more especially for the number of choice fruits and flowers, many of which have been produced from seed by the hands of its skilful proprietor.

The pear orchard of the late William R. Austin, Treasurer of the Horti¬ cultural Society, was, and is still, famous for the size and beauty of its fruit, produced by pruning his trees into the shape of a wineglass.

And here, in Dorchester, if I may be permitted to allude to it, are the experimental grounds of the writer, formerly the estate of Governor Increase Sumner, which at the time of his death, 1799, passed into the hands of his son, General William H. Sumner, one of the founders of the Horticultural Society, and finally came to its present owner. On these ex¬ perimental grounds have been produced, under the personal inspection of its present proprietor, within the last fifty years, more than twelve hundred varieties of fruits ; and from thence there were exhibited, on one occasion, four hundred and four distinct varieties of the pear. Here was originated, by the art of hybridization, the Camellias Wilderi and the Mrs. Abby Wilder, which received, more than thirty years ago, a special prize of fifty dollars; also the Mrs. Julia Wilder, the Jennie Wilder, and other camellias of great perfection : and from this place went to the Boston Public Garden, on its foundation in 1839, the entire collection of greenhouse and garden plants, as already mentioned.

Roxbury was noted for its interest in fruit culture at an early period, as has been seen by the statement of Chief-Justice Paul Dudley, already quoted. This town was remarkable for its production of apples and the quantity of cider manufactured. The farm of the late Ebenezer Seaver, member of Congress from 1803 to 1813, was distinguished for the culture of fruit. This estate has passed regularly down in the family line through Joshua, Jonathan, the Ebenezer Seavers, and the Parkers, lineal descend¬ ants, who now live on it.1

Mrs. Parker remembers several large ancient pear-trees standing on the home-lot, which were old but vigorous when she was young. An Orange, and a Minot pear-tree of great size in the trunk, and an excellent pear for cooking, still remain on the lawn, beside a Gennetin pear-tree, whose age

1 In the account-books of Jonathan Seaver, from 1731 and on, we find that he was largely interested in the manufacture of " Sider." From 1740 to 1749, we find the Rev. Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, annually charged with from three to five barrels of "Sider" for several years; and that on April 24, 1749, Mr. Seaver credited him with "Thirty Pounds in Cash, old tenor in part, for Sundries." The old and new cider-mills are remembered by Mrs. Parker, a daughter of " Squire Seaver," who at an advanced age still lives in the old house. Large heaps of fragrant apples lay outside of the mill in the autumn, and during the second

Ebenezer Seaver's day, a little more than a hun¬ dred years ago, the bears were attracted to them from the " Rocky Wilderness Land " which lay to the southwest, towards what is now Forest Hills. Upon one occasion a bear lingered tast¬ ing till he was discovered. Mr. Seaver and his neighbors gave chase, and finally captured him on the marsh land in Dorchester, in the vicinity of what is now Crescent Avenue. The neigh¬ bors were invited to a feast in honor of the occa¬ sion, at Mr. Seaver's house, the bear furnishing the chief dish as well as a steak for each guest to take home. The Seaver estate is now covered with many fine buildings.

none can remember, and which bears two or three bushels yearly of its small early fruit. During the period of Ebenezer Seaver's service in Con¬ gress, Colonel Matlock, a gentleman whom he met there, gave him some scions from the original Seckel pear-tree, near Philadelphia. He sent them carefully home in a letter, and his son Jonathan grafted them before his return, they being the first of the kind, so far as he knew, in this vicinity.1

There was also where Schuyler Street now is an immemorial Iron peartree, so tall that the crown of the tree was usually not picked. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, and during the first years of the present, the fruit of the mulberry was much esteemed, there being then few of the many small-fruits which are now cultivated. The widow of the second Ebenezer received in one season seventy dollars for the fruit sold from one large mulberry-tree which stood in front of the house, beside using much herself for the entertainment of friends. It lived till after the marriage, in 1820, of the granddaughter, who remembers it well. This farm was also celebrated for its cherries, but the trees were blown down in the gale of 1815.

The late George J. Parker had large fields of currants and gooseberries. There have been gathered in one year fifty barrels of gooseberries from bushes which he planted.2

Prior to the present century Judge John LowtII was a leading patron in the promotion of improved agriculture, and he was President of the Massa¬ chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, for many years. He had an or¬ chard, garden, and one of the first greenhouses, and contributed to the fund for establishing the Botanic Garden at Cambridge.3 This property was inherited by his son, the Hon. John Lowell, who was also president for some years of the above named society, and who stood at the head of the horticulturists and agriculturists in New England, and was styled by Gen¬ eral Dearborn the Columella of the Northern States. He presided at the preliminary meeting which led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Mr. Lowell received scions of fruit-trees from Mr. Knight, President of the Horticultural Society of London, and from other eminent pomologists of Europe, and so liberally distributed them to his friends that his trees were often crippled in their growth. He was also interested in the growth of exotics, and had in his collection some of the first orchideous plants of which we have any record. Among his plants sixty years ago he had a famous Strelitzia regina , which was then an object of great curiosity. No man in the early part of this century did more for the promotion of pomol¬ ogy in New England than Mr. Lowell.4

1 The tree is still flourishing, and on Saturday, 2 Letter of Miss Parker , granddaughter of the September 27, 1879, there were picked from it Hon. Ebenezer Seaver. over two barrels of pears. One individual pear, 8 Augustus Lowell's Letter.

inches each way round. The family had never John A. Lowell, our esteemed and venerable citiseen one to equal it in size. The original Seckel zen, who added largely to its glass structures, tree is still standing in Ward 26, Philadelphia. one of which was an orchid-house, to contain

In Roxbury was the garden of General Henry A. S. Dearborn, who will ever be gratefully remembered as the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He was also a great leader in the establishment of the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the founder of Forest Hills Cemetery. In his garden were raised the Dearborn Seedling pear and other fruits. He gave several hundred ornamental trees to be planted at Mount Auburn, and was personally occupied in the laying out and adornment of both this and the Forest Hills Cemetery; and to him are the public more indebted primarily for the prestige and popularity of these institutions than to any other man. His labors, addresses, and communications for the press in regard to the science and practice of horticulture, and rural embellishments, have given to his name in this community an honorable standing.

Here also was the garden of the late Enoch Bartlett, one of the founders and first vice-presidents of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, where may now be seen the first Bartlett pear-trees imported, a variety which is more popular than any other in our country. These grounds were pre¬ viously owned by Captain Brewer, and on them he had planted many fruittrees. When Mr. Bartlett purchased this place, in 1820, he found two young trees, which on fruiting proved to be what is now known as the Bartlett. Both of them still bear fruit, the largest being over forty inches in circum¬ ference, three feet above the ground. This pear was afterward ascertained to be the Williams Bon Chretien, an English variety.1

At Jamaica Plain were the garden and orchard of Captain John Prince, who was a successful cultivator of fruits and flowers. In 1825 he had eleven varieties of pears, four of plums, two of apricots, besides grapes and many varieties of apples. His greenhouse contained some of the early camellias introduced into New England, - among which was a Double White, purchased when it was only a foot high, of Joseph Barrell of Charles¬ town, but a few hours previous to Mr. Barrell's death.

In Roxbury, one of the most noted places during the last century for the production of fruits and vegetables was the old Williams homestead, on Walnut Avenue. This was the home of Aaron Davis Williams, who succeeded his father, and who during a long and useful life contributed largely to the advancement of the horticulture of our vicinity. His father, John Davis Williams, was celebrated as a cultivator at the close of the last century, as was probably his grandfather before him. From the orchards of this place for more than a hundred years have come to the Boston market many of the choicest fruits and vegetables. This spot is also mem¬ orable as the birthplace of the brothers John Davis Williams and Moses Williams, so well known as merchants of Boston, the latter now surviving at ninety years, in a healthful old age.2 the plants bequeathed to him by John Wright Boott, some of which are now at the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, to which Mr. Lowell also gave a large part of his own botanical library.

Another fine old place in Roxbury was that of Rufus G. Amory, with its long avenues, entering from Washington Street, and bordered with noble elms, which still live. He was much interested in ornamental culture, im¬ porting trees and shrubs from Europe ; and, it is said, received our com¬ mon Barberry bush at a high price, while he was paying men at the rate of five shillings a day to dig them out of his own grounds. This estate, Elm Hill, was for a long time the residence of the late John D. W. Williams, but is now (1881) laid out into streets and cut up into houselots.

The Roxbury Russet apple was a great favorite a hundred years ago, and many orchards produced from five hundred to one thousand or more barrels a year. It is believed to have originated on the old farm of Ebenezer Davis, where some trees of the original orchard still remain.

The farm of Samuel Ward, now belonging to the Brookline Land Com¬ pany, was famous, fifty years ago, for its Roxbury Russet apples, often producing a thousand barrels a year; and also for cherries, of which he sent to market forty to fifty bushels daily in the season, and occasionally he despatched a four-ox team to Providence with seventy-five bushels.

Among the orchards of early times were those of the Curtises at Jamaica Plain. These have passed down to the present occupants in direct lineal descent, and from them immense crops of apples have been sent to the Boston market, in which the Curtises are the largest dealers and export¬ ers of this fruit, shipping them by thousands upon thousands of barrels to foreign ports.1

Nor should we omit the ancestral home of our worthy citizen Aaron Davis Weld, in West Roxbury, so celebrated for its orchards in olden time, and during the last forty years for its famous apples and the renowned Weld Farm cider and vinegar. In addition to great crops of fruits, two hundred tons of hay are cut on it a year.

In Roxbury, too, is the splendid estate of William Gray, Jr., ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. This is on the borders of Dor¬ chester, and was formerly a portion of the celebrated estate of Colonel James Swan,2 long imprisoned in France " for debts not of his own con¬ tracting, and who was one of those who helped throw the tea into the har-

District, where my brother, Aaron D. Williams, was born, and where he died, was originally a lean-to, two stories on the front and one story on the rear. It was inherited by my father, John D. Williams, who was baptized John, and who married Hannah Davis. After his marriage, he petitioned the Legislature and took the name of John Davis Williams. My brother, the oldest child of my father, was also baptized John, and after he became a man he likewise petitioned the Legislature for leave to take the name of John Davis Williams instead of John Williams ; but, as my father was a farmer and received but few letters, my brother never signed his name junior , as it appears to me now that it would have been proper for him to have done. However, no trouble ever arose on this account. My father and (I am almost certain) my grandfather, were born - at any rate, they lived - on the same estate where my brother Aaron D. was born, and where he died. There were no better culti¬ vators of fruits and vegetables than my father in his day, and my brother Aaron in his. My father left an estate in 1807 of #85,000, all acquired by uncommon ability as a cultivator of fruit and vegetables. My brother Aaron made all thrive under his care, but became too rich the latter part of his life to give to cultivation his exclusive attention. Very truly your friend,

1 Charles F. Curtis's letter, in which he states that the receipts of apples for the season up to Jan. 29, 1881, at Boston, were over six hundred and ninety thousand barrels.

bor."1 Here Mr. Gray has offered the public fine illustrations of landscape gardening by the laying out of his beautiful grounds. From his conser¬ vatories and grounds our exhibitions have been constantly enriched with rare and costly plants, and his enterprise keeps up with the progress of the age. For the last three years he has won the $150 Silver Cup for his roses.

Roxbury, from the early part of this century, was distinguished for its greenhouses. We have mentioned those of the Lowells and others, to which we must add that of John Lemist, who was lost on the ill fated steamboat "Lexington," in 1840. This place was formerly the residence of Judge Auchmuty, Governor Increase Sumner, and Beza Fucker, and in 1824 it passed to Mr. Lemist.2 His greenhouses and grapery, under the care of a Scotch gardener, John R. Russell, became quite noted. His collection of plants, especially camellias, gardenias, and roses, was considered as remark¬ able ; and he often obtained one dollar or more for a cut flower of the double white camellia.

The gardens and nurseries of Samuel Walker, fifth president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, were situated in Roxbury, opposite the estate of Governor Eustis. Mr. Walker was prominent in his efforts to advance horticulture, and made his home in a garden. He was a zealous and experienced cultivator of plants and fruit-trees, bestowing great atten¬ tion on the cultivation of the dahlia, tulip, and pansy. He annually gave public exhibitions of the tulip under a canvas tent erected for the pur¬ pose, and had costly varieties, such as Louis XVI. and others, valued at £10 to ^15 for a single bulb. His nurseries were for many years noted for their excellence, and his fruits on exhibition were of the first-class, among which was the Mount Vernon pear, produced from seed.

On the borders of Jamaica Pond is the garden of Francis Parkman, LL. D., ex-President of the Horticultural Society, who has become almost as widely known for his experience in hybridizing plants as for his histori¬ cal writings. By the process of hybridizing he obtained the Liliiim Parkmanii, for the stock of which a florist in London made him a present of one thousand dollars.

Roxbury has been celebrated for the many varieties of fruits which have bepn originated within her borders. Of these may be named the famous Roxbury Russet, Williams's Favorite, and Seaver Sweet apples; the Dear¬ born's Seedling, Lewis, Merriam, Dana's Hovey, and Mount Vernon pears.

In Milton are numerous fine estates, which under modern horticultural skill are worthy of remembrance, - such as the summer residences of Henry P. Kidder, Francis Peabody, R. B. and J. M. Forbes, Mrs. F. Cun¬ ningham, Miss Russell, and of John W. Brooks, whose pear orchard con¬ tains six hundred trees of the Beurre d' Anjou, generally considered " the best." Nor would we omit the residence of Colonel Henry S. Russell, in

The town of Brookline has been celebrated from an early date for the elegant residences of our opulent citizens, and for its gardens, orchards, and ornamental grounds. " Brookline was for a long time pre-eminent in the little cordon of towns which have so long constituted the exquisite environs of Boston, embossing it with rich and varied margins of lawn and lake, and meadow and wooded hill-side, and encircling its old 'plain neck,' - as Wood called it in his New Englands Prospect, - with an unfading wreath of bloom and verdure." 1 Here were the homes of the Amorys, the Aspinwalls, the Perkinses, Sullivans, Sargents, Lees, Gardners, Tappans ; of General Theo¬ dore Lyman, Benjamin Guild, Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, John E. lhayer, and others, who have been patrons of horticultural improvement; and although the citizens of Brookline protested, in 1773, against the intro¬ duction of the leaves of the tea-plant without their consent, they have been proveibially fiiends of rural taste, and have done much for the adornment of their residences with other beautiful trees and plants.

In the very early part of this century the gardens and greenhouses of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins were particularly distinguished. He and his brother, Samuel G. Perkins, inherited a love for fruits and flowers from their grandmother, Mrs. Edmund Perkins, who was Edna Frothingham of Charlestown. Colonel Perkins's residence in France and other foreign lands, where he had seen fine fruits and flowers, stimulated his nat¬ ural taste, and induced him to purchase this estate in 1800, when he began to build his house, to lay out his grounds, and to erect greenhouses and glass structures for the cultivation of fruits and flowers ; and until the estab¬ lishment of the magnificent conservatories and fruit-houses of his nephew, John Perkins Cushing, at Watertown, his place was considered the most advanced in horticultural science of any in New England. For fifty years Colonel Perkins s estate was kept in the best manner by experienced foreign gardeners, and at an expense of more than ten thousand dollars annually. He hequently received trees and plants from Europe, the products of which were prominent at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci¬ ety. In 1840 he introduced the Victoria Hamburg, West's St. Peter's, and Cannon Hall Muscat grape-vines, which were presented to him by Sir Jo¬ seph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of Devonshire.

Next to be named are the garden and fruit-houses of Samuel G. Perkins, which were presented to him by his brother, Colonel Perkins. The spot was selected on account of its being situated between the Colonel's and the beautiful estate at Pine Bank of James Perkins, an elder brother (and where now lives his grandson, E. N. Perkins), and as a favorable place where

Samuel might indulge his natural taste, and exercise the skill which he had acquired in horticultural science by residing in foreign lands, and by his acquaintance with experienced cultivators of both fruits and flowers. His fruit-houses were two hundred feet in length ; in and around them were grown the choicest varieties of grapes, peaches, and plums ; there the Golden Nectarine was produced by him from the stone. Mr. Perkins was the in¬ troducer from France of the Uuchesse d'Angouleme pear, the Franconia raspberry, and other fruits.1

In Brookline is the old Aspinwall estate, the birthplace of our beloved citizen the late Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, where still remains the same old house2 in which he and his father, Dr. William Aspinwall, were born. Here were planted by Dr. William Aspinwall extensive orchards of Bald¬ win and Roxbury Russet apples, and other fruits. A few trees are still remaining near the old house. So plenty were peaches that the pigs were turned into the orchard to eat up the surplus ; and this ground is still called the " old peach orchard." On a portion of the Aspinwall estate, Mr. Augustus Aspinwall, a distinguished merchant and horticulturist, one of the first board of counsellors of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, devoted a part of his time to horticultural pursuits, erecting two extensive graperies. He was eminently successful as a cultivator of the rose, of which he made frequent exhibitions. %

The most extensive and elegant estate in Brookline is that of the vener¬ able Ignatius Sargent, whose success in grape culture forty years ago was so great that he exhibited bunches of the Black Hamburg grape weighing from four to six pounds. On these grounds is the beautiful cottage of his son, Professor Charles S. Sargent, on the site of the residence of the late Thomas Lee, who was thirty years ago much interested in the growth of rhododendrons, azaleas, and other plants. Under the supervision of Pro¬ fessor Sargent, this place, with its magnificent landscape, its conservatories of plants, and its extensive collection of conifers, rhododendrons, and aza¬ leas, is every year thrown open to the public. With its extensive and rare collection of native and foreign trees and shrubs, and its wide and grand embrace of one hundred acres in extent, this estate is one of great interest for the study of landscape and ornamental culture.

General Lyman, to whom we have alluded, expended in 1842 large sums of money in the erection of his house, of which Richard Upjohn was the architect. He improved the premises by grading the lawn, planting trees, and building graperies ; all of which have been further improved by

3 Letter of Augustus T. Perkins. "He attend- Tom. I know you love fine fruit; and fearing ed personally to the pruning and cultivation of you do not often get it, I have brought you somehis trees; and his success was greater than that thing worth having.' - 'Thank you, Brother of his brother. He usually wore a button-hole Sam ; I try to be contented with what .1 have ; bouquet in the lapel of his coat, and was fond and I certainly should be, if you were not always of surprising his brother with superior fruits, bursting in and giving me something that makes One day he came with a basket of gorgeous me envy you.'" grapes, peaches, and apricots, and said : 'Brother 2 [See Vol. I. p. 221. - Ed.]

his worthy son, Colonel Theodore, who still resides there, and whose son of the same name, a promising lad, we hope may live to perpetuate the memory of Theodore Lyman. Here remain some of the grand old trees planted by the father of our venerable citizen Jonathan Mason, who still lives at the advanced age of nearly ninety years. General Lyman was a patron of horticulture, agriculture, and moral reform.1 He gave ten thou¬ sand dollars to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

In Brookline, also, is the elegant villa, with its splendid avenues and grounds, of the late John Eliot Thayer, left by him to Mrs. Thayer, now Mrs. Robert C. Winthrop, where a most generous hospitality and cordial welcome aie extended by Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop to their numerous friends both of our own and foreign lands.

Here, also, are the fine estate and extensive glass structures of John Lowell Gardner, to whom we have referred already, by whose liberality for a long course of years the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society have been graced and enriched by elegant plants and products from the hands of his experienced gardener, Mr. Atkinson. Mr. Gardner's mother was sister to the Hon. John Lowell, and he inherits the same taste for rural life and culture for which Mr. Lowell was so well known. His father, as we have seen, also possessed like tastes when he lived in Sum¬ mer Street, where foreign grapes and pears were grown in open air. The Saint Germain pear was very large ; and of the Brown Beurre Mr. Gardner says, " I have never seen finer specimens."

The elegant estate of the Lion. Amos A. Lawrence, at Longwood, was once the farm of Judge Sewall, on which there are relics of pear culture. One of the trees, a very large one, was destroyed by a gale several years ago. The largest which remains, though with lessened proportions, now measures, at six inches above the ground, nine feet two inches in circum¬ ference. Thirty years ago it bore what is called the Button pear, but has since been regrafted with another variety. Judge Sewall, in his diary between 1680 and 1700, mentions grafting some pear-trees at his house in Boston with " Button pears." The grafts were probably taken from this tree.2

Cambridge was celebrated for her gardens and the ornamental culture of her grounds even before the beginning of this present century. "At the close of the Revolution, Andrew Craigie purchased the Washington headquarters, enlarged the house,3 and laid out the grounds in the taste of that period. On the western side of the mansion, the tall hedges and clumps of lilacs are all that remain of this early garden. Mr. Craigie had a greenhouse on the grounds, where the dormitory of the Episcopal Semi¬ nary now stands. This structure was burned about 1840. He also had an ice-house, an almost unknown luxury in those days. Some people thought a judgment would befall one who would thus attempt to thwart the designs of Providence by raising flowers under glass in winter, and keeping ice under ground to cool the heat of summer; which now seem to have been the forerunners of two great institutions in Cambridge, - ice in summer, and flowers in winter."

Thomas Brattle, of whom mention is elsewhere made,1 returning from exile in 1784, took possession of his patrimony, the house which now bears his name, and began to improve his grounds according to the taste of a century ago; and from that time until his death, in 1801, his garden, pos¬ sessing a profusion of fruits and flowers, was the boast of Cambridge. His house was built by his father in 1742, when was planted, probably, the square of English lindens which so long formed a green canopy around it, but which have all fallen, the last one disappearing about fifteen years ago. Mr. Brattle, with a native taste for horticulture, and with observa¬ tion of foreign lands, no doubt laid out his grounds in the latest styles of Europe, having a spring of pure water, a marble grotto, a pond for gold¬ fish, and a parterre for aquatic plants on a lower level, where the Uni¬ versity Press now stands. His lawn was so velvet-like that it was said it could only be improved by combing it with a fine-tooth comb.

The most remarkable fruit garden in Cambridge during the last century was that of Bosenger Foster, who lived on the estate occupied by the late venerable and worthy Samuel Batchelder, who died a few years ago at the age of ninety-two. This estate is now occupied by Mr. Thomas P. James and his accomplished wife, the daughter of Mr. Batchelder. The garden is still partially enclosed by a brick wall, which has been a landmark on Brattle Street for the last one hundred and fifty years. Here was probably the first extensive collection of pear-trees in a region now famous for its fine fruits. Mr. Foster imported the most celebrated French pears, some trees of which attained great size; a few of them, with a most beautiful black mulberrytree, ornament the place and still bear fruit. Here are still large hawthorntrees which it is believed were planted by the Vassalls in 1730, and which still produce a profusion of white blossoms, and are a harbor for winter birds, who feed on the ripe haws.2

Cambridge has been conspicuous for the culture of fruits, especially of the pear and plum, as the exhibitions of the last fifty years have shown. Here were the experimental grounds and nurseries of Samuel Pond, Henry Vandine, and numerous gardens of fruit-trees. It has also possessed the most extensive nurseries and plant-houses of any place in New England. Here Mr. P. B. Hovey, with his brother Charles M. Hovey, established more than forty years ago, upon a piece of wild woodland, the famous nursery of Hovey & Co., for the sale of trees and plants; and here, under the supervision and direction of the latter gentleman, associated with their sons in the profes¬ sion, he has supervised and carried on the raising and testing of fruits, the producing of seeds, and the hybridization and acquisition of plants, which have given him and his brother a wide reputation as horticulturists both at home and in foreign lands. Mr. Hovey's love of nature and his am¬ bitious and enterprising disposition have inspired him to prove under his own personal inspection everything in the way of horticulture that seemed desirable. In the department of pomology there have been fruited and proved on these grounds more than fifteen hundred varieties of fruits ; and from them there was exhibited, on a single occasion, three hundred varieties of pears. Here were raised, by the crossing of the strawberry, the Boston Pine and Hovey's Seedling strawberry, - the last named being still, after almost fifty years of trial, one of our finest varieties in cultivation.

Their collection of plants contains grand old specimens, which are the result of many years of patience and toil. Some of the Chinese and other palms are fifty years old and twelve feet high. Here was early begun the hybridization of plants, by which have been produced some of the most re¬ markable camellias of which our country can boast, - such as the Mrs. Anne Marie Hovey, Charles M. Hovey, Charles H. Hovey, and others, for some of which they received the gold medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and also a first-class certificate by the London Horticultural So¬ ciety. Many of these Mr. C. M. Hovey exhibited in London in person. The camellia-house of Hovey & Co. is one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and twenty-five feet high, and it contains some of the largest camellias in the country, all planted in the ground. Here are twenty other houses for the growth of plants.

The collection of Hovey & Co. contains hundreds of species and vari¬ eties of ornamental trees and shrubs, among which are remarkable speci¬ mens of elegant and curious trees, worthy of the long life which it has taken to produce them. Mr. C. M. Hovey was for four years president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the editor of the Magazine of Hor¬ ticulture for thirty-four years, - the whole period of its existence. These volumes contain a vast amount of horticultural and kindred matter, and as books of reference are of very great value to all lovers of the art. Tri¬ umphing over all obstacles, and working with a zeal that never tires, he still lives to promote the great cause to which he has devoted his life.

The city of Newton, with her eight villages, and with a numerous popu¬ lation of active business people, has made, perhaps, as great advances in horticultural science as any other area of the same size around Boston. Here are numerous beautiful residences, with highly cultivated gardens, orchards, and well kept grounds; and just beyond, in Natick, where the Apostle Eliot planted his apple-trees, are cultivators of the rose, whose sales amount to thousands of dollars annually.

Newton and Brighton have been noted for their cultivation of fruits, trees, and plants for nearly a hundred years. The first nursery of any considerable note in New England was begun by John Kenrick, of New¬ ton, in 1790, by the raising of peach-trees from the stone, to which he added in a few years the apple, cherry, and other fruit-trees. In 1797 he began a nursery of ornamental trees, two acres of which were planted with the Lombardy poplar, then a most esteemed, but now despised, tree. His nurseries became the most extensive in New England. In 1823 Mr. Kenrick took his elder son, William, into partnership, and continued the busi¬ ness until his death in 1833. Peaches and currants were here extensively cultivated; and there were made in 1826 three thousand and six hundred gallons of currant wine. William Kenrick's nursery at Nonantum Hill, in Newton, established in 1823, continued for twenty-seven years ; and fora part of this time he imported and sold more fruit-trees than any other nursery-man in New England. John A. Kenrick, brother of William, also pursued the nursery business on the old estate until his death in 1870.1 William Kenrick was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a zealous, enterprising citizen, the author of the New American Orchardist, and a public writer. He entered largely into the Morns Multicaulis speculation, propagating hundreds of thousands of this tree both on his own grounds and other land which he had taken up in the South.

James Hyde established a small nursery of fruit-trees about the year 1800, when he was eighteen years old. This was enlarged from time to time; and in 1842 our respected friend, James F. C. Hyde, since President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, became a partner with his father, and for many years carried on the business with success. To this day he possesses the same love of rural life and interest in fruits and flowers, especially in testing by personal experience the new varieties which come to his notice, and in writing of them for the press.

In Brighton there was a nursery established in 1816 by Jonathan Winship, also a founder of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. In 1826 he associated with him his brother Francis, and carried on the general nursery business on an extensive scale for many years. They also had greenhouses for the propagation of plants, being among the earliest growers of ornamental trees and plants for sale. They furnished the city of Boston largely for planting its Common and streets ; also other cities, and many of the cemeteries, having at that time the largest collection in this section of the country; and they were among the first to send cut flowers to the Boston markets for sale. To their collection Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin made valuable donations which he gathered in Europe.2

The nursery and plant business was in later years carried on in Brighton by Joseph Breck and James L. L. F. Warren, and now by William C. Strong and Charles IT B. Breck & Sons. Forty years since Mr. Warren was largely interested in the cultivation of ornamental and greenhouse plants, and had public exhibitions of the tulip and other bulbous plants. Having possessed himself of the stock of the Camellias Wilderi and the

1 History of the Massachusetts Horticultural 2 Letter of Lyman F. Winship. [See also the Society, pp. 33, 34. chapter on " Brighton," in Vol. III. - Ed.]

Mrs. Abby Wilder, he propagated them largely, and went to Europe with them, where he made considerable sales. Mr. Warren is now in Cali¬ fornia, and has been editor of the California Farmer for thirty years.

Joseph Breck, afterward president and one of the original members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, had grounds in Brighton for the culti¬ vation of ornamental plants and the production of seeds; and his name is still continued in the firm of Joseph Breck & Sons, the oldest seed-house in New England, it having existed more than fifty years, succeeding that of John B. Russell, the only survivor of the original corporators of the Mas¬ sachusetts Horticultural Society. Mr. Breck was one of the foremost pro¬ moters of the culture of fruits and flowers, and wrote frequently for the press. He was proprietor, and for some years the editor, of the Horticul¬ tural Register, which passed through several volumes; and he also produced other works. His Book of Flowers has passed through many editions, and has a very wide circulation.

The nurseries and plant-houses of William C. Strong, ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, are worthy of special notice for the enterprise and intelligence of their proprietor. Here, under one con¬ tinuous roof of glass of eighteen thousand square feet, is an enclosure where plants are grown as in the open ground ; where immense quantities of the rose and other flowers are daily cut for the market. The estate of Mr. Strong, about forty years ago, was possessed by Horace Gray, of whom we have spoken in connection with the establishment of the Public Garden in Boston. He erected on these grounds the largest grape-houses then known in the United States, in which were grown extensively numerous varieties of foreign grapes. For the testing of these under glass, in cold houses, Mr. Gray erected a large curvilinear-roof house, two hundred feet long by twenty- four wide. This was such a great success that he built two more of the same dimensions.

In addition to these, Brighton, in the early part of this century, was the residence of several celebrated agriculturists and horticulturists. Here were the orchards of Gorham Parsons, who also had others at Byfield ; of S. W. Pomroy, Mr. Faneuil, Samuel Brooks, and others; and here for many years were held with great success the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, under the patronage and supervision of such leaders as John Lowell, John Welles, Peter C. Brooks, General Dearborn, Josiah Quincy, John Prince, and the gentlemen above named.

We owe to a Boston banker one splendid illustration of the wonderful progress of horticultural improvement, as shown in an estate in Wellesley, which may, without detraction from any" other, be placed at the head of all others in New England, if not in our country. This is the property of Mr. H. Hollis Hunnewell, comprising in all, with its fields and forests, about five hundred acres, on which he began his operations about thirty years ago. The ornamental part contains about forty acres, from which he cleared the wild growth of scrub-oaks, pitch-pines, and other worthless trees and shrubs before he began work upon it. He then laid out his splendid avenues and plots, and undertook the planting of his most inter¬ esting and instructive collection of hardy trees and plants, natives not only of our own country, but also such of California, Japan, and other lands as would endure our climate.1

The avenues to this estate are planted on either side with most beautiful pines, spruces, beeches, maples, magnolias, and other trees, intermixed here and there with the rarest and costliest conifers, rhododendrons, azaleas, and other flowering shrubs, - all of which have grown up within the last thirty years. Its meandering walks, also planted on either side with the rarest and newest conifer and other evergreens; its various vistas giving here and there delightful views, - are most charming. The magnificent velvet lawn in front of his house, the lovely Lake Waban in the rear, the Italian Garden, the parapets, balustrades, statues, and vases, with the clipped trees of various forms, lead one to suppose, as Mr. Henry W. Sargent says, "that we are on the Lake of Como." Here are fruit and vegetable gardens en¬ closed with ornamental hedges ; a conservatory attached to the house ; six plant-houses, and six fruit-houses ; and numerous and varied illustrations of ornamental beds of flowers.2

Nor must we omit some record of the famous Ridge Hill Farm of Wil¬ liam E. Baker, containing eight hundred and fifty acres, with its ten miles of avenues, its artificial lake one and a half miles in circumference, its grotto underground one fourth of a mile in length, and several greenhouses; every¬ where affording, under the care of his gardener, Mr. Greaves, illustrations of the artistic bedding of plants.

And just across the water, opposite Mr. Hunnewell's, is the fine countryseat of Benjamin Pierce Cheney, whose love of horticulture and the Fine Arts induced him to contribute the grand statue of Ceres which. crowns the temple of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, - Mr. Hunnewell and Mr. Charles O. Whitmore at the same time, also, presenting the statues of Flora and Pomona which adorn the corners of this building.

1 His collection of rhododendrons and aza¬ leas, the largest in our country, embraces many thousands of plants, to which he is constantly adding everything new and rare, demonstrat¬ ing, beyond doubt, that a very large number of varieties grown in Europe may be successfully cultivated with us. Of such as are somewhat tender he has the choicest varieties, which he stores in cool pits in the winter, planting them out in the spring under an immense canvas tent of seven thousand square feet. The whole of his magnificent estate is opened to the public, once a week, gratuitously. A few years since he made, in the name of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, an exhibition of hun¬ dreds of these under an immense tent on Boston Common. The exhibition lasted for several weeks, and was visited by throngs of gratified spectators ; and the income from it was gener¬ ously given to constitute a fund for the Society, to be used in encouraging the growth of these plants.

2 The whole, for twenty-seven years, has been under the charge of Mr. F. L. Harris, his gardener, and constitutes a place unsurpassed in this country for the acquisition of everything new or old in horticulture to please the eye, charm the senses, or gratify the taste; and affording also, with the contributions and bene¬ factions of Mr. Hunnewell to the Horticultural Society, a noble illustration of his love of the ob¬ jects which he has sought to promote, and which, by his untiring interest and personal attention, have been brought to the highest perfection.

Watertown and Waltham have been celebrated for the residences of wealthy citizens of Boston, as far back as the last century. Belmont, at W atertown, formerly the residence of John Perkins Cushing, now the home of Samuel R. Payson, has been and is still one of the most celebrated places in New England, if not in the United States, for its horticultural taste and improvement, having been thoroughly kept up for more than half a century. Here, for the last fifteen years, Mr. Payson has indulged his natural taste in the pleasures of rural life, by the acquisition and cultivation of the most beautiful fruits and flowers of the age 1

Mr. Cushing was a great lover of the works of Nature; and with lavish expenditures he improved this estate, in the highest sense of the word, by the laying out of the grounds and by the erection of numerous plant and fruit houses. He contributed largely to the exhibitions of the Massachu¬ setts Horticultural Society, and opened his grounds once a week to the public in the summer season, making his place the most famous at that time for horticultural progress in New England.

The present estate of Mr. Payson embraces about two hundred acres, and its fine avenues bordered with old oaks, walnuts, and tulip-trees (one of the last is eighty feet in height), with other ornamental trees, rhododen¬ drons, azaleas, and different shrubs, make it one of great interest. Here is a large conservatory, sixty feet wide, with fourteen other houses devoted to the cultivation of certain classes of plants, fruits, and vegetables. Among these houses may be named a large greenhouse, two pelargonium, two orchid, one palm, one azalea house, with several others devoted to grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs, and vegetables.

The lawn on the south of the house is magnificent, containing about twenty acres, on and around which are some of the finest purple beeches in the land. On these premises are several gnarled old oaks and a deciduous cypress of great age, and also a park well stocked with deer.

Opposite Mr. Payson's is the handsome old place of William Pratt, which has for a long course of years been kept in fine condition by his heirs, under the supervision of his son, George W. Pratt, one of the early vice-presidents of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and since his death Miss Mary Pratt, who still lives, at an advanced age, preserves its former reputation with good taste and enterprise. The conservatory of choice plants, the graperies, peach-house, the orchard and garden, are per¬ petuated from year to year in excellent order.

1 This estate some sixty years ago was the been the improvement in our fruits that only residence of Eben Preble, an old merchant of two of the varieties are now considered valuable. Boston, and brother of Commodore Preble. This estate passed to Nathaniel Amory, who He built the brick walls still enclosing the married the daughter of Mr. Preble, in 180S ; grounds in which the present conservatories and thence to R. D. Shephard about 1830 ; in a few other glass structures are located. Mr. Preble years to Mr. Cushing; and after his death, about in 1805 imported into Boston one hundred and i860, to Mr. Payson, by whose personal attention fifty varieties of fruit-trees ; and so great has everything is kept with fine taste.

ornamental grounds, together with a valuable picture-gallery, have made this place one of the most attractive in the vicinity of Boston, where the generous hospitality of its proprietor was abundantly dispensed, as it is now by his heirs.

The orchards and gardens on this side of our city were noted a long time ago for their extent and the excellence of their fruit. Here was the home of Josiah Stickney, ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, where his heirs still reside. Although a merchant in active busi¬ ness, he found time to plant an extensive pear orchard and a garden, from which, under his personal care, he brought forth some of the finest fruits which have been on exhibition. Before his removal from Boston, his love of flowers led him to establish a small garden on Tremont Street, north of the Masonic Temple, where, forty years ago, he cultivated the dahlia exten¬ sively, frequently carrying off prizes for the excellence of his specimens.1

In Waltham was the splendid estate of Governor Christopher Gore, which was considered in former times as among the most elegant in our vicinity. The Governor while residing in England, as commissioner for the adjustment of claims under the Jay Treaty, evidently imbibed a taste for the life of a country gentleman, and acquired a knowledge of the then accepted style of building and landscape gardening. His house and grounds were arranged strictly on the English model. The estate comprised several hundred acres, in the middle of which was what was called the " Home Field," where stood the mansion. The drawing-room was furnished in the gay and graceful fashion of Louis XVI.; the other rooms, with substantial rich mahogany, much of it of the old ante-Revolutionary type. A straight avenue, shaded by double rows of trees, conducted the visitor to this stately abode. Shady walks radiated from the house to the east and west, secluding it upon all sides, except that one opening permitted a view of the river a halfmile across the lawn, and of the fields beyond it. The trees which bordered the avenues and walks and ornamented the grounds were tastefully grouped, occasionally converting the walks into Gothic aisles, one of which formed a vista opposite the east window of the library.2

This place on the death of Governor Gore passed into the hands of William Payne, then to General Theodore Lyman, and on the latter's re¬ moval to Brookline, to Copley Greene. Now it is distinguished for numer-

1 Desirous of promoting the cause of horticul¬ ture, he made a bequest of his estate at Watertown to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for an experimental garden ; but afterward he revoked this gift, and gave the sum of twelve thousand dollars to the society, the income of which was to be devoted for thirty years for the purchase of books for its library, then to be transferred to the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge.

their own hands. The Governor was fond of agricultural pursuits, and was an ardent amateur farmer, having, in addition to his fruit, flower, and vegetable garden, extensive fields, under cul¬ tivation, and a large group of barns and farm buildings. From this elegant mansion might be seen the Governor taking an airing in his orangecolored coach, with coachman, footman, and out¬ riders all in livery, and with a stateliness quite in keeping with his fine place. - Letter of Colonel Henry Lee. Of this place Fisher Ames wrote : "I do not expect to build a smarter." ous glass structures for the growth of fruits, flowers, and vegetables, and for the excellent condition in which its grounds and their appurtenances are kept by its present owner, Mr. T. W. Walker. Waltham was much developed by the enterprise of Messrs. Lowell and Patrick Jackson. There also Dr. James Jackson had a lovely place, and Judge Jackson for a few years held the Gore place by lease.

Another place is especially worthy of notice in Waltham. " Lyman Place, the home of Iheodore Lyman, one of Boston's best known mer¬ chants, where he and his eldest son, George W. Lyman, lived from 1795 until their deaths, - the latter having died Sept. 24, 1880, aged ninety-three years, ten months, - was bought in 1793, and the mansion-house erected in 1 795 - The first greenhouse was built about 1800 and divided into two parts, in which were raised pineapples, bananas, and other tropical fruits, and among the ornamental plants the Yellow Mimosa (acacia), which was then considered very elegant. Mr. Lyman brought over a celebrated Eng-- hsh gardener by the name of Bell. He began by laying out and grading the grounds, which took several seasons to finish, but when completed they were in their time the finest illustration in the country of modern landscape gardening; "bearing witness," says Mr. Henry W. Sargent, "to a refined and elegant taste in rural improvement. Its fine level park, a mile in length, was enriched with groups of English limes, elms, and oaks ; and masses of native wood, watered by a fine stream and stocked with deer, were the lead¬ ing features of the place at that time. The oldest of these trees were set out early in this century, and are still in a healthful condition." " The peculiar thing," says Colonel Theodore Lyman, his grandson, " is that my grandfather, son of a poor country clergyman in Old York, and compelled to work hard from boyhood, should have had the tastes of a refined man of leisure in a matter of landscape gardening. Considering the immense difficulty of doing such a thing in those days, there is nobody near Boston now who is doing as much as he did." 1

Charlestown in the early part of this century was distinguished for its good gardens and fine fruits. Here was the fine fruit garden belonging to the estate of Nathan Tufts, now occupied by the Rev. Dr. Lambert, rector of St. John's Church. Another fine residence was that of Eben Breed, now the site of Mount Vernon Street, with garden, greenhouse, and a small orchard. Among the finest places on the peninsula about the year 1800 was that of the Hon. Samuel Dexter, which afterward passed to Matthew Bridge and H. Davidson, and is now owned by Rhodes Lockwood, who occupies a part of it; it had a fine garden of fruit and ornamental trees, grape-vines, and a greenhouse. On this estate are now the handsome grounds of the Hon. T. T. Sawyer and the Hon. Edward Lawrence. The father of the Hon. George Washington Warren had a large garden of fruittrees and plants. John Hurd and William Hurd had good gardens. Mr.

James Hunnewell had a fine estate, now occupied by his son, our esteemed citizen James F. Hunnewell. This estate still retains its former size, with many of the original trees and plants.1

Among other gardens was that of the Hon. Charles Thompson, whose father was an experienced cultivator of fruits. It is still among the largest and best in the town. The Navy Yard has a large garden for fruits and flowers. The grounds of the Ursuline Convent on Mount Benedict were once extensive in their orchards and shade-trees. In Charlestown, also, was the " Vineyard," under the care of David Haggerston, one of the pioneers of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and afterward the gardener of John P. Cushing at Watertown. This garden was an experimental one, and devoted almost exclusively to the testing of foreign varieties of the grape in open ground, and other small fruits; and here was first introduced from Europe the famous Keen's Seedling strawberry. Here was a green¬ house containing a fine collection of the camellia, where the writer saw this elegant plant in bloom for the first time in his life. Another garden devoted to the cultivation of fruits and flowers was that of Samuel R. Johnson, who forty years ago was one of the most successful cultivators and exhibitors of fruits and flowers.

There have been many other fine gardens in Charlestown, but most of those of which we have spoken have been built upon. Outside of the peninsula was the estate of Joseph Barrell, on the present site of the Mc¬ Lean Asylum, which was one of the most distinguished in our region.2 It had large gardens and greenhouses, which cost about fifty thousand dollars, and in those days was called a " show-place." It was named Pleasant Hill, and is probably identical with Poplar Grove.

Horticulture had a cordial reception in the early days of Medford, even back as far as the building of the house of Matthew Cradock. The Royall house, once occupied by Colonel Isaac Royall, though not so old, stood in the midst of grounds laid out in elegant taste; and embellished with fruit trees and shrubbery, walks bordered with box, and a summer-house surmounted by a cupola and a statue of Mercury.3 This estate was pur¬ chased in 1810 by Jacob Tidd, who afterward removed to West Roxbury, and exhibited at the rooms of the Horticultural Society the Horatio (or Nice) grape, weighing over six pounds to the bunch. Mr. Royall died in 1739, leaving the property to his son Isaac; and by the name of Royall it is still known. There were many fine estates in Medford in our own day. Such were those of Timothy Bigelow, Peter C. Brooks, Thatcher Magoun,

1 Mr. James Hunnewell was an enterprising and intelligent merchant ; he visited the Sand¬ wich Islands three times during his life, spend¬ ing several years there, and established there in 1826 the mercantile house which still exists; and which, though it has passed through several hands since, has still a good standing, and is,

West Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, Concord, Wilmington, Winches¬ ter, Woburn, Reading, Revere, and other towns in our vicinity have been prominent in promoting the science of horticulture during the present cen¬ tury ; and from them we have derived not only fine fruits and flowers, but the choicest vegetables which are to be seen in any market of the world. From Wilmington came the world-renowned Baldwin apple, which consti¬ tutes the largest portion of the apples exported from our market, filling more than three fourths of the six hundred thousand barrels that are sent annually abroad.1

From Concord come some of the finest roses, strawberries, grapes, and vegetables which grace our exhibitions ; but if it had produced nothing else but the Concord grape, its name, and that of Mr. Ephraim W. Bull, would have been remembered with gratitude.

One of the most conspicuous and extensive places as regards horticultu¬ ral improvement and landscape gardening, and interesting also for its his¬ toric associations, is that at Lexington, of the Hon. Francis B. Hayes, President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; and did our space permit us to describe the more distant tributaries of the metropolis, we could tell the story of his fine estate with its conservatories, fruits, and flowers, and how his acres have expanded, during these last nineteen years, from the thirteen acres of the original purchase till it now includes between four and five hundred, covering the rights conveyed by forty-nine deeds.

If our space again permitted us to extend our observation we should not neglect Salem, where the tomato was first introduced; where Robert Manning's Pomological Garden did much for the pomology of New Eng¬ land as early as 1823 ;2 where John Fisk Allen, in 1854, produced the earl-

Dear Sir, - *Your note of the 26th inst. was received, asking me to give you the account which my grand¬ father, Samuel Thompson, Esq., gave me of the Baldwin apple. In reply I will say he was a surveyor of land, and while he was on duty one fall day in a pasture in the town of Wilmington, near a road called Butters Row Road, he came across a tree with fine looking apples thereon. The tree was hollow with decay, and a woodpecker found a place for her nest therein. He said he carried home some of the fruit and gave his brother Abijah some of it, and they were so highly pleased with it that they procured a lot of scions from the tree and set them in the trees around their homes, and they soon began to yield fruit ; and they gave some to Colonel Baldwin, their neighbor, and he valued them so highly he went into them deeply and spread them around among his friends broadcast, and they had no name for them, and of course they gave them his name. While

# Letter of Colonel Leonard Thompson to the Hon. Charles Woodman. [See note to Mr. Adams's chapter in this volume. Brookses Medford , p. 19, places the tree in that town, near the Woburn line. See also Ellis's Count Rumford, pp. 375-77. - Ed.]

Of the Baldwin apple, Deacon Thomas Griggs of Brookline, now in his ninety-fourth year, writes: "Seventy years ago I employed a man by the name of Tufts, to graft. He came from Woburn and brought scions called the Pecker apple. He said Mr. Baldwin, when sur¬ veying for the canal, found a tree on the edge of the wood, which was almost killed by wood¬ peckers, but had on it a very few nice red apples. From this tree he cut scions, and from it sprang the Baldwin apple."

2 The most important public benefit conferred on the Pomology of New England, if not of our whole country, was the establishment of this Pomological Garden in Salem. It was for test¬ ing fruits, both native and foreign, and ascer- iest hybridized American grape, an experiment abundantly exemplified later by Edward S. Rogers; and where Joseph Sebastian Cabot possessed six hundred varieties of the tulip. Nor should we forget Lynn, and the Breeds, with their enterprising spirit.

Coming nearer on the North Shore, among the most remarkable instan¬ ces of success in combating with our northern climate were the efforts of the late Frederic Tudor, at Nahant. Here he began a large garden on a spot without a tree or shrub, and by enclosing it with high double-pale fences to break the wind, he succeeded in producing many fine fruits. In the year 1849 he exhibited a basket of Louis Bonne of Jersey pears, one of which measured over ten inches in circumference, and weighed thirteen and three fourths ounces. The trees and vines of this garden, which the writer visited a few years since, were then in a healthful and productive condition. Mr. Tudor attached to the pears of which we have spoken the following note : " The whole circumference of ten fruits in this basket is eight feet, one and a half inches; weight of the same, - seven pounds, four and three fourths ounces ; the tree, a dwarf, bore ninety-five fruits."

Going a little further inland to the west we find Dedham, in former days noted for many fine residences, among which were those of Fisher Ames and Edward Dowse, both of whom were much interested in horticulture, and who planted some of the beautiful elms and other trees which adorn her streets. They had orchards and gardens and ice houses, which were considered rare luxuries in those days. The estate of Mr. Dowse, by the will of his widow, became the property of her nephew, Josiah Quincy; who gave it to his youngest son, the late Edmund Quincy; who bequeathed it to his second son, Dr. Henry P. Quincy, and to his daughter Mary, who now live there.

Among others who have been engaged in the promotion of horticulture may be named Edward M. Richards, Ebenezer Wight, and Edward S. Rand, Jr., all of whom held the office of recording secretary of the Mas¬ sachusetts Horticultural Society. Dr. Wight was one of the most eminent cultivators of the apple, proving under his own observation the numerous varieties as they came to notice, and distributing scions of the same to all applicants. Edward S. Rand, Sr., promoted the advancement of horticul¬ ture by the adornment of his beautiful estate, and by his excellent collec¬ tion of greenhouse and orchid plants of which we have spoken before.

taining what were adapted to our own climate. Mr. Manning opened a correspondence with the celebrated Dr. Van Mons of Belgium, with Robert Thompson, the head of the Fruit De¬ partment in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London, and with others in Europe and our own country. From these various sources he received trees and scions to carry on his work. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, prosecut¬ ing his labors with great enterprise and zeal till the time of his death, in 1S42, when the collec¬ tion of fruits, of which he had personal observa¬ tion, amounted to more than eighteen hundred varieties. He also established a nursery, and dispensed trees and scions of such as he could recommend to our own and other lands. He was a most careful observer ; and to him more than to all others in our country in his day we are indebted for the introduction of new and choice fruits, for the identification of the differ¬ ent varieties, the testing of their qualities, and for their correct nomenclature. His son Robert and two sisters still live on the homestead.

His son Edward possessed grounds and houses for the culture of fruits and flowers, which with his collection of orchids, and his contributions to our exhibitions, were of a notable character. The efforts of Colonel Eliphalet Stone for more than thirty years in promoting the culture of fruits, both by his nurseries and orchards, are still continued, with the love of younger years; and he dispenses now, as ever, the results of his careful experience for the benefit of the public. Dedham was the home of the Norfolk Agri¬ cultural Society, whose presidency for the first twenty years was vested in the writer, and which greatly promoted by its exhibitions the horticulture of our vicinity.

Turning to the South Shore for a hasty glance, we find that in Braintree, including what is now Quincy, some of the early occupants introduced orchards and gardens. Among these - besides the Adamses, Hancocks, and William Coddington - was the first comer of the distinguished Quincy family, Edmund Quincy. His estate originally consisted of a thousand acres. He died in 1636, at the age of thirty-three, just after he had built a house on what is now Mount Wollaston. His son of the same name, who died in 1697, inherited the estate, and planted an orchard, of which some appletrees still remain. Judge Edmund Quincy, its next owner, dying in Lon¬ don, the property came to his son, Colonel Josiah Quincy, who about the year 1770 had upon it gardens and orchards, with a rich collection of French pears, and a fine lime-tree which has come down to our time. The son of the Colonel, the eminent Patriot known as Josiah Quincy, Jr., dying in early manhood, left an only son, the late honored Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, and President of Harvard University, to whom his grandfather, dying in 1784, bequeathed the estate. The president, who lived to a ven¬ erable age, devoted intervals during his public life and his retirement from it to the care, adornment, and enrichment of the three hundred and fifty acres which came to his possession. He was fond of natural beauty and of agricultural improvements, and laid out his grounds with much taste. He planted in 1790 an avenue, a third of a mile in length, of six rows of elms and two of ash-trees, still thriving, besides more than a mile and a half of hedge.1 When President Quincy was in Congress, in 1809, he obtained from an English gardener, Mayn, established at Georgetown, D. C., plants of the American hedge-thorn (Buckthorn) , which he set double in his avenue for a third of a mile. After flourishing many years, this hedge was eradicated in 1850. Mr. Quincy also obtained from Mayn the Burgundy, York, and Lancaster roses, the Bignonia Radicans, then rare in this vicinity, and other plants. He found his attempts to introduce here the principles of English agriculture very troublesome and costly. He continued his interest in fruit, and when past his fourscore years, called on the writer to purchase trees of the Winter Nelis pear. On being told that it was a slender and slow grower, he replied: "That is of little consequence to such young fellows as myself." He had a fine herd on his farm, and wrote one of the best treatises on the Soiling of Cattle , which was published at the re¬ quest of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. In 1849 and 1852 it was revised by Mr. Quincy, and was republished in the Trans¬ actions of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, of which he was a member, and it was reported upon again, in i860, in Flint's State Agricultural Report. Mr. Quincy was fond of every improvement, and had one of the first mow¬ ing-machines introduced into New England. He died, July 1, 1864, in his ninety-third year, in the house and apartment of his grandfather, Colonel Josiah Quincy, leaving to his daughter, Miss Eliza Susan Quincy, and to two of her sisters, life-estates in his house and grounds around it, where they now live. To his eldest son, the present Hon. Josiah Quincy, he bequeathed his farm, with a house erected in 1850, who also carried it on for a few years, and where, in 1881, he lives in a green old age, with his children and grand¬ children around him.

We cannot close this chapter without recognizing with gratitude the efforts of the men who laid the foundations of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, of the American Pomological Society, and par¬ ticularly of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.