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HORTICULTURE

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BY

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TOLMAN & WHITE, PRINTERS, 383 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.
1881.

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ARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, |

- PRESIDENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND Historic ey ie 1 ‘eh
Ay Soctery, Boston.

BOSTON MEMORIAL SERIES, VOL. Iv.

PRIVATE oS PRIN TED.

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.’

By MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, Ph. D.,

PRESIDENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.

** Hail, Horticulture! Heaven-ordained,

Of every art the source,

Which man has polished, life sustained,
Since tithe commenced his course.

Where waves thy wonder-working wand,
What splendid scenes disclose;

The blasted heath, the arid strand,
Outbloom the gorgeous rose !”—Fessenden.

Boston and its environs have been famous in history
as the battle grounds of freedom and the home of free
schools ; famous as the abode of high culture and good
taste, and equally famous for elegant gardens, fine
flowers and luscious fruits. Horticulture embraces
Within its compass not only fruits and flowers, but
whatever pertains to ornamental culture, garden, orchard
and landscape.. The horticulture of Boston, to whose
shrine its votaries have brought their offerings, and
in whose temples they have worshipped for half a
century, has-smbraced not only the city but its
surroundings. Horticulture seems to have been the
counterpart of a high civilization in all ages, forming
in its study and practice the most perfect union of the
most useful and beautiful art that mankind has ever
known; and this seems to have been so appreciated by
our own people from the earliest settlement down to

1 Prepared for the Boston Memorial Series, Volume IV.

4 THE HORTICULTURE OF

the present time. As to the fruits of this region previ-
ous to the coming of the colonists, we know but little.*
Suffice it to say, that whether Lief and Thorwald, the
Scandanavians, did or did not land on our shores in
the tenth century, as the Sagas have it, and here saw
grapes so abundant that they gave this land the name
of Vinland, we know that the vine was found on our
_coast by Champlain, six centuries after, and that it
prospers through twenty-five degrees of latitude ; and,
should the phylloxera continue its devastations in
Europe, our continent may become literally the Vine-
land of the world. No nation possesses such wonder-
ful resources for the culture of fruits; no people have
made such rapid progress in the science of Pomology ;
and to Boston and vicinity may be traced primarily
the wide-spread interest in Horticulture that now per-
vades our continent. Nor has this enterprise declined.
Massachusetts retains her renown for her skill in horti-
cultural science, and her interest in its advancement.

The earliest account that we have of the fruits and
flowers of New England is given by the pilgrims at
Plymouth, where, in addition to Indian corn and other
grains they also found fruits and flowers which were
indigenous to the soil. “ Here are grapes,” wrote Gov.
Edward Winslow, in 1621, “white and red, and very
sweet and strong, also; strawberries, gooseberries,
raspberries ; plums of three sorts, white, black, and red,
being almost as good as adamson; abundance of roses,
white, red and damask, single, but very sweet.” !

The first orchard of which we have any account in
our vicinity was that of the Rev. William Blackstone
(Blaxton), planted on the west slope of Beacon Hill,?

* See Dr. Asa Gray’s chapter in Boston Memorial, Volume I.
1Young’s Chronicle of the Pilgrims, p. 234.
2 Boston Memorial, Vol. I., p. 84.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 5

near Charles Street, being a portion of the six acres
reserved from the fifty acres which he sold to the
inhabitants of Shawmut, and from which he removed
in 1654 to what is now Lonsdale, Rhode Island, where
may still be seen, near his favorite resort, “ Study Hill,”
remains of trees planted by him, and from which were
disseminated apples, now under cultivation, by the name
of Blackstone. The first planting of fruits by the
colonists of Massachusetts Bay, we believe, was the
orchard of Gov. John Endicott, of Salem, about the
year 1628, a pear tree of which still survives and
bears fruit at the present time. From this nursery we
find that as late as 1648 Endicott sold 500 apple trees
to William Trask, for which he received two hundred
and fifty acres of land, an acre of land for two apple
trees, a noble illustration of the appreciation in which
fruits were held by the colonists at that time.

The planting of fruits by the colonists under Gover-
nor Winthrop, was, we presume, soon after their arrival,
or the year 1630, for we find in the outfits of their
cargo, seeds and stones of fruits particularly men-
tioned.

We find that, next to Blackstone, Governor Winthrop
was the most prominent in the horticulture of Boston,
having, in addition to his farms at Governor’s Island, a
garden opposite the foot of School street, his house
being a little north of the Old South Church, and was
demolished by the British in 1775. Winthrop had
frequent correspondence with Endicott in regard to
fruit trees, as had his son John, Governor of Con-
necticut. Among the early records in regard to the
production of fruit by the colonists, is an account
of a good store of pippins from Governor Winthrop’s
garden.

From the early settlements on our coast orchards

6 THE HORTICULTURE OF

and gardens were considered as among the most desir-
able acquisitions of landholders. Among the earliest
of which we have notes were the orchard of Blackstone,
the nurseries of Gov. Endicott at Salem, the orchard and
vineyard of Gov. Winthrop, and one hundred and fifty
years later the orchards described by Paul Dudley in
Roxbury, the orchards and nurseries of John Hancock
on or near the site of the present State House, and of
Judge John Lowell, who died in 1802, at, Roxbury,
and who is supposed to have built one of the first
greenhouses in this part of the country. The Judge
was father of John Lowell, the distinguished agricul-
turist and pomologist, of whom we shall speak here-
after.

The colonial legislature granted to John Winthrop,
then Governor of the colony, a section of land in our
harbor known as Conant’s Island, but afterwards as
Governor’s Island, on condition that. he should plant
thereon a vineyard, and should pay as rent therefor a
hogshead of wine. Whether this vineyard was planted
or not we have no means of ascertaining, but the con-
tract was afterwards altered to make the rent two
bushels of apples a year, one for the Governor and one
for the General Court. 7

What the intermediate progress of horticulture in our
vicinity may have been after the time when Endicott
planted his pear tree at Salem, and Winthrop his orchard
on Conant’s Island, we can not positively determine.
But we find in the “ Philosophical Transactions, London,
1734,” a paper communicated to the Royal Society
by Hon. Paul Dudley, of Roxbury, Chief Justice of Mas-
sachusetts, entitled “‘Some Observations on the Plants
of New England, with Remarkable Instances of the
Power of Vegetation,” which gives us an account of the

BOSTON AND VICINITY. fi

size and culture of fruits 4nd vegetables growing in
Roxbury in 1726, as follows:

-¢'The Plants of England, as well as those of the Fields and Or-
chards, as those of the Garden that have been brought over hither,
suit mighty well with our Soil, and grow here to great Perfection.

*¢ Our apples are, without Doubt, as good as those of England,
and much fairer to look to, and so are the Pears, but’ we have not
got all the Sorts.

‘Our Peaches do rather excel those of England, and then we
have not the Trouble or Expense of Walls for them; for our Peach
Trees are all Standards, and I have had in my own Garden seven
or eight Hundred fine Peaches of the Rare-ripes, growing’at a Time
on one Tree.

*¢ Our people, of late Years, have run so much upon Orchards,
that in a village near Boston, consisting of about forty Families,
they made near three Thousand Barrels of Cyder. This was in the
Year 1721. And in another Town, of two Hundred Families, in
the same year I am credibly informed, they made near ten Thousand
Barrels. Some of our Apple Trees will make six, some have made
seven Barrels of Cyder, but this is not common; and the Apples
will yield from seven to nine Bushels for a Barrel of Cyder.

*¢ A good Apple Tree, with us, will measure from six to ten Foot
in Girt. Ihave seen a fine Pearmain, at a Foot from the Ground,
measure ten Feet and four inches round. This Tree, in one Year,
has borne thirty-eight Bushels (by Measure) of as fine Pearmains,
as ever I saw in England. A Kentish Pippin, at three foot from
the Ground, seven Foot in Girt; a Golden Rossetin, six Foot
round. The largest Apple Tree that I could find,,was ten Foot
and six Inches round, but this was no Graft.

‘¢ An Orange Pear Tree grows the largest and yields the fairest
Fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high, that measures
six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground, and has
borne thirty Bushels at a Time; I have a Warden Pear Tree, that
measures five Foot six inches round. One of my Neighbors has a
Bergamot Pear Tree that was brought from England in a Box,
’ about the Year 1645, that now measures six Foot about, and has
borne twenty-two Bushels of fine Pears in one Year.

‘¢Our Peach Trees are large and fruitful, and bear commonly in
three Years from the Stone. Ihave one in my Garden of twelve
Years Growth, that measures two Foot and an Inch in Girt a Yard
from the Ground, which, two Years ago, bore me near a Bushel of

8 THE HORTICULTURE OF

fine Peaches. Our common Cherries are not so good as the Kentish
Cherries of England, and we have no Dukes or Heart Cherries,
unless in two or three Gardens.”

One of the ancient gardens of Boston of which we have
a distinct record is that of Gamaliel Wayte, in Summer
street, on the site of the store of C. F. Hovey & Co.’
He came over with Edward Hutchinson, and is described
as a planter in the records, which probably meant far-
mer or gardener, the latter most likely to be the fact,
for we find by the Book of Possessions this land is de-
scribed as Wayte’s Garden, and that it was noted for
the superior excellence of its fruits. This was planted
as early or before 1642. Wayte had other estates in
Boston but we know not that he dwelt here himself.’
Gamaliel seems to have been one of our earliest horti-
culturists and had the ability not only to plant but to
partake of its fruits, for Judge Sewall in his Diary states
that he lived to the age of eighty-seven, and not long
before death was blessed with several new teeth.

This estate passed into the hands of Leonard Vassal,
a name which is honorably connected with the Massa-
chusetts colony from its early period, thence to John
Hubbard and Frederick W. Geyer. Here once resided,
in the family of Mr. Geyer, Mrs. Maryatt, whose gar-
dens at Wimbledon were at one time the finest ia
England for their beauty and variety of flowering
plants, and we may reasonably conjecture, says Mr.
Amory, that “the taste and skill that produce such
marvels were nurtured and fostered in her earlier days
among the flower beds of Summer street.” She died |
in 1855 at the age of 81. This estate passed in 1800
to Samuel P. Gardner, Esq., the father of our respected

1 See Boston Memorial, Vol. II., p. xxxi.
2 Letter of Hon. Thomas C. Amory.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 9

merchant and feilow-citizen, John L. Gardner, and
from him the latter probably inherited that love of
the fruits and flowers which for many years have distin-
guished his conservatories in Brookline, and graced the
exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Of this estate the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop remarks,
“No garden in Boston had finer fruit fifty years ago,
and it was cultivated and cared for with the highest
intelligence and skill. The best specimens of all the
old varieties of pears were to be found there, and Mr.
Gardner had a peculiar art of preserving them from
decay and bringing them out after the season for them
was over.’ How many of Wayte’s trees or plants sur-
vived till these grounds came into the possession of Mr.
Gardner we know not, but we have a diagram of the
garden, and the lists of its fruits in 1811, furnished us
by Mr. John L. Gardner, and as late as 1870 there was
an old pear tree in the yard that was in a thrifty con-
dition.

Summer street was for a long time one of the most
delightful in the city, and well merited its name from
the overhanging branches of ornamental trees and the
beauty and fruits of the gardens attached to the man-
sions of its wealthy occupants.

Here, in the early part of this century, were the
residences of Goy. James Sullivan, afterwards of Wil-
liam Gray, Joseph Barrell, Benjamin Bussey, Nathaniel
Goddard, Henry Hill, and David Ellis, father of Rev.
Dr. George E. Ellis, whose gardens were supplied with
the fruits and flowers of those days, and where peaches
and foreign grapes, and the old pears of which we have
spoken, ripened every year.

Perrin May, a retired old merchant of Boston, was
a skilful cultivator of fruits. His garden was on Wash-
ington street, at the South End, where he produced

10 THE HORTICULTURE OF

remarkable specimens of fruits, especially the pear,
which he attributed partly to the entrapping of cats
and fertilizing the soil with them. Of the early pears,
which soon decayed at the core, he said they should be
eaten by a chronometer.

We have no detailed history of the progress of horti-
culture in New England from the early days of which
we have written. But we find in 1750 that apples
from Blaxton’s orchard were for sale in Boston market.
In 1770 we find the following advertisement in the
Boston Gazette, by the gardener of John Hancock,
the first signer to the ever memorable Declaration of
American Independence, and first Governor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts :

‘*'To be sold by George Spriggs, Gardener to John Hancock,
Esq., a Large Assortment of English Fruit Trees, grafted and in-
oculated of the best and richest kinds of Cherry Trees, Pear Trees,
Plumb Trees, Peach Trees, Apricots, Nectarines, Quinces, Lime
Trees, Apple Trees, grafted and ungrafted, and sundry Mulberry
Trees, which will be fit to transplant the next year, and Med-
leys.”

John Hancock’s nursery and pasture were near the
site of the present State House ;* and his garden and
orchard surrounded his princely mansion. Governor
Hancock’s garden is said to have been one of great
note, having received constant accessions from Eng-
land. Miss Eliza Greenleaf Gardner, a distant relative
of Mrs. Hancock, who still lives, was for many years
an inmate of the Hancock house, and states that—

‘¢ The grounds were laid out in ornamental flower-beds, bordered
with box; box trees, of large size, with a great variety of fruit,
among which were several immense mulberry trees.” —Drake’s Old
Landmarks of Boston, p. 339, 340.

1 See Boston Memorial, Vol. II., p. xlvi.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. Lh

Among the prominent gardens which existed in
Boston previous to the Revolution, was that of Gov-

ernor Thomas Hutchinson.* This was on Garden
— Court, extending back to Hanover and Fleet streets.
These grounds are said to have been extensive,
and tradition informs us were well stocked with the
choice fruits and flowers.of those days. His splendid
_ residence is minutely and graphically described by Mrs.
Lydia Maria Child in the “Rebels.” This was located
next to the celebrated house of Sir H. Frankland,
which, like others in that region, are reputed to have
had fine gardens, their possessors being of the elite of
society, and North Square, the rival or court end of
the town.’

Gov. Hutchinson had also a residence on Milton Hill,
with orchards and a garden. This estate was confis-
cated, and became successively the residence of James
Warren, Barney Smith, Jonathan Russell, and now of
Miss Rosalie G. Russell. Hutchinson appears to have
been fond of rural life and was himself a practical cultiva-
tor, having grafted with 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. Gov. Hutchinson planted the
old button-wood trees on the sides of the road of Milton
Hill’

Among the gardens in the early part of this century
were those scattered over Pemberton Hill from
Southack’s court, now Howard street, to Beacon street
up and around the capitol. Here was the garden
of Doctor James Lloyd, father of our Senator in Con-
gress, running back to Somerset street, where is still

* Boston Memorial. Vol. II., pp. xi, 526.
1 Old Landmarks of Boston, page 166 and 167.
2 Letter of Edmund J. Baker.

12 THE HORTICULTURE OF

standing the house built by his son, the Hon. James
Lloyd.

From Southack court, now Howard street, many of
the residences over Cotton, Pemberton, and Beacon Hill,
and around the State House, had gardens. Here dwelt
Rev. John Cotton, Gov. Endicott, and at a later day,
Gardiner Greene, Wm. Phillips, and at the corner of
Beacon and Tremont, Samuel Eliot, grandfather of
President Eliot, of Harvard College.

Gov. James Bowdoin’s garden extended from the
corner of Beacon and Bowdoin streets over to what is
now Ashburton street, and Dr. John Joy’s from Beacon
to Mt. Vernon street.

On Tremont street, nearly opposite King’s Chapel,
was the estate of Lieut-Gov. Wm. Phillips, formerly
the residence of Peter Faneuil,* of Faneuil Hall mem-
ory, whose gardens and grounds are described as being
very fine. Here, it is said, was built by Andrew
Faneuil, uncle of Peter, the first greenhouse in New
England. Miss Quincy, in her memoir, thus: describes
the place :

‘¢'The deep courtyard ornamented by flowers and shrubs was
divided into upper and lower plats. The terraces which rose from
the paved court were supported by massive walls of granite, and a
grasshopper glittered on the summer-house, which commanded a
view only second to Beacon hill.”—Drake’s Old Landmarks, page
54; also, Miss Quincy’s Letter.

But the most conspicuous and 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,
ornamental trees, flowering shrubs and plants, and were
to me, when I visited them, sixty-five years ago, a scene

* See Boston Memorial, Vol. Il., pp. 259, 523, and the view in Vol. IV.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. TS

of beauty and enchantment I shall never forget.' Here
were growing in the open air Black Hamburg and
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 brought from foreign
lands; 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 city mall where it now stands.

Nearly down to Tremont street was the house of the
late Doctor 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 Brook-
line; on the latter estate were raised from seed the
President, General Grant, Admiral Farragut, and
other Pears, varieties which should be more generally
known.

One of the largest gardens of that day was
that of Governor James Bowdoin, to which we have
referred. He hada 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. There he had a garden abounding
in the finest fruits, pears and peaches, apples and
grapes. Hon. James Bowdoin, his son, resided on Milk
street, in the house where our honored citizen, the
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, was born, known as the
“Mansion House.’ This garden extended back
almost to Franklin street, and was filled with fruit

1 See frontispiece of Boston Memorial, Vol. IV.

Mey THE HORTICULTURE OF

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 Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, was familiar with that
garden, and from it he probably gained some of the
zeal that characterized him as a leader in horticul-
ture. Of this garden, says Mr. Winthrop: “There were
no more delicious Saint Michael, Brown Beurre, Mon-
sieur Jean, or Saint Germain pears to be found any
where in Boston than I have eaten from those
trees.’ Mr. Bowdoin, had also a large farm at Dor-
chester, now known as Mount Bowdoin. where he had
an orchard of apple and pear trees. He also experi-
mented with fruit trees on Naushon Island, now the
property of the Hon. John M. Forbes. His main atten-
tion was, however, given to horses, cows and sheep;
the breeding of the latter being still continued. This
estate was in the care of the father of Mr. Winthrop
for many years after the death of his uncle, Mr.
Bowdoin; and, says Mr. Winthrop, “I have worn clothes
made of Naushon wool.’ The cheese from this Island
was quite celebrated more than half a century ago;
and Mr. Winthrop adds: “I doubt if any one in Massa-
chusetts did more for Agriculture and Horticulture at
that period than James Bowdoin, the son of the
Governor.”’*

Another garden worthy of record, which stood on
what is now the site of the Revere House, was that of
Kirk Boott, an eminent merchant and one of the
founders of Lowell. It was the home of John Wright
and William Boott. Here, fifty years ago, was a good
garden with fruit trees and vines in which were grow-

1 Letter of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 15

ing in the open air foreign grapes and other tender
fruits, which now succeed only under glass. 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 of Dr.
Francis Boott, a brother, and a celebrated botanist in
London. The collection of Amaryllises and Orchids was
the best in the country, the latter having been the first
attempt in New England for the culture of this tribe of
plants. Here forty years ago was a magnificent plant
of the Phaius grandiflora (Bletia Tankervillez), then a
rare plant. Mr. Boott gave his plants to the Hon.
John A. Lowell, from whence some of the Orchids
went to the collection of Edward S. Rand, of Dedham,
and to which he made large additions by importation
from Europe, and were finally given, by him and his
friend James Lawrence to the Botanic Garden at Cam-
bridge. E. S. Rand, Jr., had an extensive collection of
Orchids, some of which are now in the grand collection
of Frederick L. Ames, at North Easton, which has been
by importation at great expense so much enlarged as
to occupy three houses for their growth, and is scarcely
second to any in this country. Mr. Ames is one of the
most enterprising and generous contributors to the ex-
hibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural .Society,
having, in addition to these, a fernery, a stove, a con-
servatory, two graperies, a rose house, a propagating
and a vegetable house. He has for years received from
Europe all the new and desirable plants soon after their
introduction. Some of his Orchids have cost from 100
to 180 guineas a plant.

Other old gardens on Summer street and vicinity
were those of Amory, Salisbury, and of Edmund
Quincy, running back to Bedford street; Judge
Jackson’s, on the corner of Bedford and Chauncy

16 THE HORTICULTURE OF

streets, where the building of the Massachusetts Chari-
table Mechanics’ Association now stands; and the
Rowe and Barrell estates, on what is now Chauncy
street; a part of the latter, at the foot of Franklin
street, being drained by Mr. Barrell, and converted
into a garden.

Mr. George W. Lyman’s recollection of the gardens
and open grounds of Boston, is as follows:

‘¢Qn Green and Chardon streets was Mr. Samuel Parkman’s
estate, with a large garden. On Green street that of Samuel Gore,
and one other large estate, owner’s name forgotten. On Bowdoin
square and Chardon street, estate of Gov. Gore, garden and land,
the estate 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. Dan-
forth, Dr. Loyd, Gardiner Greene and Goy. Phillips, extending
to highland, and including the Bowdoin estate, and perhaps others.
On Beacon Hill was a monument, with a gilt eagle on its top. I
regret the destruction 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,
was removed and dumped into the filthy mill pond. I hope the
only remaining classical hill, the Copps, 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 Gov. 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 streets. 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.”

Writes Mr. Lyman, under his own hand, May 24, 1880, ‘ this
lot is now covered with houses and streets.”

‘* You will perceive that the old town of Boston is very much
altered from what it was at the date of my memorandum. In my
opinion it was a much pleasanter place to reside in than what it is at
present. I was pleased with your kindly recollection of me, and I

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 17

hope you will continue to enjoy your fondness for horticulture,
flowers, etc., for many years.

I remain your friend and servant,
Geo. W. Lyman.”

The great event in the progress of our horticulture
during the present century was the establishment of
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1829.
With this there arose a new era in the science
of American Horticulture, that has not only extended
its influences all over our own continent, but has
reached, enriched, beautified and energized other
portions of the world. “Its first president was Gen.
Henry Alexander Scammel Dearborn, 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
gentlemen to fill the chair, all of whom have been
lovers of rural art. Dearborn, Cook, Vose, Walker,
Cabot, Breck, and Stickney have gone before us,
but, thanks to a kind Providence, Hovey, Hyde,
Strong, Parkman, Gray, Hayes, and the writer, are
still spared to labor in carrying out the beneficent
designs of its noble founders.’* But, perhaps, the
most beneficial act of the Society was in founding the
Mount Auburn Cemetery, that “Garden of Graves,”
where lie so many of the loved and lost ones of this
community, and from which the Society has received
already large sums of money, and is entitled to a per-
petual share of its income in the future. And to repeat
the words uttered on a former occasion: “ Be it ever

1 Mr. Wilder’s Address at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Massa-
chusetts Horticultural Society, September, 1879.

18 THE HORTICULTURE OF

remembered that to the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society the public are indebted for the foundation and
consecration of Mount Auburn Cemetery.’’*

While we have no space to dwell on our long pre-
served Common with its lawns, its malls, fountains and
monuments, we must not forget the Public Garden of
Boston. The origin of this may be traced to the desire
of a few of her citizens who were interested in horti-
cultural 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, per-
haps, more indebted than to any other man for the
original idea for our Public Garden. Mr. Gray had a
small conservatory attached to his town house in King-
ston street, supplied from his country greenhouses at
Brighton, where he had grapehouses with curved
roofs, of which he was a great advocate. Mr. Gray,
in 1859, with a few associates, obtained from the
city a lease of the present site for a Botanic Gar-
den, upon which a greenhouse was built and the grounds
partially laid out and planted with a variety of orna-
mental trees and plants. A company was organized, ©
of which Mr. Gray was chairman of the proprietors,
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 of their character.

1 Mr. Wilder’s Address at the laying of the Corner Stone of Horticultural
Hall, on School Street, Sept. 14, 1844.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 19

This was a place of great attraction fur the public
until its destruction by fire, when the entire collection
was lost. The following extract is from a Boston paper
of that date, and will give some idea of its character:

‘¢ Tur ConservaToRY.—We advise our friends who are as usual
seeking amusement during the Christmas holidays, not to omit look-
ing 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 collection
of Camellias, Marshall P. Wilder, of Dorchester, spared neither
pains nor expense to procure the finest plants from the justly cele-
brated nurseries in Europe, and that the most recent and most
highly estimated seedling varieties are comprised in it. But 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 fre-
quently 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
beautifully with the dark glossy foliage. Several of the Acacia
tribe, the pride of the Flora of New South Wales, are likewise in
beauty, as is also the fine Poinsettia pulcherrima, named in compli-
ment to our minister in Mexico, Mr. Poinsett, who sent it thence
to Charleston in 1828, whence it found its way to Europe. This
plant was presented by the Hon. John Lowell, of Roxbury. We
are also informed that the society has recently received ten or twelve
cases of plants from Rio Janeiro, containing about one hundred
varieties of the curious air plants now attracting so much attention
in Europe ; most of these are beginning to vegetate in a small stove
erected for this purpose below; these will, no doubt, be exhibited
in the Conservatory as they come into flower. We trust the public
will not fail liberally to support this establishment, which, although
now in its infancy, promises to become the pride and ornament of
this wealthy and polished city.”

Among the plants destroyed was one whose history
may be noted. It was a large, Double White Camellia,
rooted from a cutting by Dr. Dixwell, in his study, now

20 THE HORTICULTURE OF

Allston street, and purchased of him by the writer
about fifty years since for the sum of thirty dollars.
This Camellia was burnt down nearly to its root, but
like the fabled goddess springing from the fire, it after-
wards sprouted up into growth again. It then went to
Mr. Jonathan French, of Roxbury, and thence to Wil-
liam E. Baker, Ridge Hill Farm, Wellesley, where it is
now in a green old age. The adjacent grounds were
filled up and the garden enlarged by the city, with the
provision that they are never to be built on. In 1859
they became our Public Garden, and in 1860 this was
remodelled by laying it out and planting it on a definite
and proper plan. This garden embraces about twenty-
four acres’ of land, containmg a choice collection of
ornamental trees, shrubs, and plants; and in the sum-
mer season, with its ninety thousand bedded plants, is an
object of splendor and interest, being the most delight-
ful resort for thousands of citizens and strangers, and
especially for children, who in pleasant weather are drawn
in their carriages or stroll through its walks. From its
inception the Garden, with its statues, fountains and
floral attractions, has been every year more highly ap-
preciated, and we trust it will soon attain to that
perfection which a Boston garden should exhibit. The
number of trees in this garden is 1500, and the whole
number of trees under city care is 23,000.

LETTER OF JOHN CADNESS,

Now Livine In Fiusuinc, NEw York.

I was engaged by Dr. Boot, of London, through Dr. John Lind-
ley, Secretary of the London Horticultural Society’s Gardens at
Chiswick. I left England in June, 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.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. il |

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,
Hume’s blush, Duchesse d@’ Orleans, Donklaerii, with many French
varieties, and all imported plants. Among 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 ap-
ple) and a large collection of Cape bulbs and Amaryllis, Pelargoni-
ums, many of Beck’s and Cock’s (of London) new seedling prize
flowers, with the finest set of herbaceous Calceolarias ever seen here.

The Conservatory and two other houses were erected on land
west of Charles street. The Conservatory was a very large struc-
ture and had an imposing appearance but was in a bad position,
being exposed to the cold winds of the Back Bay, and in severe win-
ter weather was difficult to manage. ‘There was also a fine collec-
tion of tropical and European singing birds in the Conservatory,
of which were some rare speciinens.

The gardens were at the foot, on the west side of the Common,
as now, with entrance foot of Beacon street, and were only partly
laid out. From the nature of the land, it being from four to six
feet below the street level, it was filled in with all sorts of city
refuse, and a great part of it subject to the inroads of the tide.
However, a fine broad walk was laid from the entrance 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 were cut out wherever the
soil would admit of it, and 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 costing Mr. Gray $1500, and which for
a time was a great attraction. Mr. Gray supported the place dur-
ing the time I had charge of it, and I always understood that he
was the leading spirit in its establishment. He devoted much of
his time and means to aid in its success, and in connection with the
late Mr. Teschemacher, did more to that end than any other per-
son. The two great difficulties in the case were, I think, from the
nature of the ground it was impossible to plant the proper kinds of

22 THE HORTICULTURE OF

ornamental trees that, in their growth, would have improved and
changed in a short time the character of the place; also the want
of the Conservatory and other glass, which would have been very
effective on the place.

The Public Garden was under the supervision of
Prof. James E. Teschemacher, afterwards Corresponding
Secretary of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
and one of the most eminent botanists and chemists of
our day.

In this connection, although not strictly horticultu-
ral, our history would be incomplete did we not remem-
ber the Great Elm of Boston Common, supposed by some,
probably a mere fancy, to have been planted by Mr.
Blackstone; the noble Paddock Elms in front of the
Granary burying ground, whose running roots searching
for food pierced the dark charnel vaults within, like that
other tree whose roots held within its loving embrace
the honored heads of puritan and patriot dust. The
Paddock Elms were planted about the year 1762, but
have yielded to the daring spirit which is fast making a
new city out of old Boston. The monster Elms of Essex
street are gone, and also the old “ Liberty Tree” once at
its corner on Washington street, consecrated by our
fathers to the rights of man, as a fit representative of
that national tree which now overshadows our vast
country, and under whose wide-spreading branches
more than fifty millions of happy freemen now recline
in peace and safety.

The Great Elm was also at a time one of the secret
places of resort for the Sons of Liberty, and then bore
the name of the “ Liberty Tree,” but this must not be con-
founded with the “Liberty Tree” of which we have
spoken and which was cut down by the British soldiers
during the siege of Boston. | Of the age of the Great Elm
we cannot speak positively. It has been known as far

BOSTON AND VICINITY. aoa

back as tradition can go, and it is reasonable to suppose
that it was growing there before the arrival of the
Colonists, where the night-bird held her wakeful vigils
in the branches above, the sonorous frogs their nightly
incantations in the pools below, and where the wild
flower was

‘“born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

Until 1830 this old tree stood without special care,
where, under its umbrageous shade, millions of souls
have rested on their promenade, and hundreds of the
lowing herd have chewed in quiet the fragrant cud.
And could this old tenant of the forest have told his story
of the past, how many councils of the red man, plans of
patriotism, tales of love, plots of mischief, and acts of
sin would be revealed? But, like all things terrestrial,
which must have an end, this venerable giant ,of the
forest came to its destruction. In the gale of February
15th, 1876, its monstrous trunk and towering branches
fell to rise nomore. Thousands of relic hunters flocked
to get souvenirs of the tree and carried them home in
triumph, sawing, cutting, and carrying them away as
relics snatched from some holy shrine. Universal sorrow
was manifested by the public at the loss of this venerable
tree. Resolutions of regret were passed by the Massa-
chusetts Horticultural Society, and the writer was re-
quested to solicit from the Mayor asection for preserva-
tion in its cabinet, a request which was granted, both to
this Society, to the New England Historic Genealogical
Society and to himself, from which were made noble
chairs, commemorative of the Centennial of our Repub-
lic in 1876.

Among the most potent agents in the promotion of
horticulture at the beginning of the present century

24 THE HORTICULTURE OF

was the establishment of the Botanic Garden at Cam-
bridge ; furnishing, as it has done to the present day, a
most extensive and interesting collection of native and
foreign plants collected from all parts of the world;
where the student may be instructed, the eye charmed,
the senses gratified with an infinite variety of curi-
ous and beautiful trees and various types of the floral
_ kingdom; and where the science of plant life and its mani-
fold relations to the arts and industries are illustrated,
in their connection with the happiness of the human race.
This garden was established at the beginning of the
present century, and has ever exercised a happy influ-
ence on horticulture and the knowledge of plants. It had
for its early patron the Massachusetts Society for Pro-
moting Agriculture, which in 1801 laid its foundation
by a liberal subscription to establish a Professorship of
Natural History at Cambridge, culminating in the
planting of the Botanic Garden, at Harvard Univer-
sity, which has exerted a direct influence on the taste
that ultimately led to the formation of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society-

Under the direction of Professors Thomas Nuttall,
Thaddeus William Harris, Asa Gray, and Charles S. Sar-
gent, it has had a world wide reputation, and now under
the direction of Professor Goodale, is in a very satis-
factory condition. It has been much improved by the
efforts of Dr. Gray and Professor Sargent, but still needs
funds to promote its usefulness. Through the exertions
of Prof. Goodale the sum of more than fifty thousand
dollars has been already subscribed towards a permanent
fund, which we have no doubt will be established, and
thus this most useful institution will be placed in a

1 Transactions for the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul-
ture, New Series, Vol. Ist, page 28th.
“History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, page 40.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 5)

condition to maintain the reputation which it so richly
deserves.

The Bussey Institution* and the Arnold Arboretum
at Jamaica Plain, also departments of Harvard Uni-
versity, give promise of great usefulness, not only in
promoting Agriculture and Arboriculture, but will be
prominent agents in advancing the cause of Horticul-
ture, and a knowledge of the endless variety of trees
and plants, where, under the direction of Prof. Sargent,
curator, are now growing 2500 species of trees and
shrubs. The funds for the establishment of the Bussey
Institution were derived from the bequest.of Benjamin
Bussey, and those for the Arboretum from James Ar-
nold, of New Bedford, who constituted the late Dr. Geo.
J. Emerson and others, trustees, with authority to appro-
priate the same for sucha purpose. These institutions
are in a prosperous condition, each carrying out the ob-
jects for which they were designed. This place, now
called Woodland Hill, on which Thomas Motley, President
of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture,
now resides, by virtue of Mr. Bussey’s will in bequest to
Mrs. Motley, was purchased by Mr. Bussey in 1815, where
he afterwards had orchards of various fruits, pears,
plums and peaches, especially of the apple and cherries,
largely Mazzard, as Mr. Bussey used to say, for the

*The property of Woodland Hill was given to Harvard College, on the fol-
lowing conditions, viz. :—‘‘ 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 agriculture, 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 designed; 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 Institu-
tion.”— Thomas Motley’s Letter.

26 THE HORTICULTURE OF

birds; “for we found they were quite fond of cherries,
and took their full share.” *

In regard to the environs of our city, we would state
that from a very early period these have been cele-
brated for their elegant estates, fine gardens, and for
the rural adornments bestowed on them by our wealthy
merchants and citizens, who, as the city increased,
required more room for commercial purposes, and
transplanted many of their trees and plants to their
country homes. Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, and
Cambridge, were famous in early history for their interest
in agricultural and horticultural improvement. For the
first twenty years of the existence of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, Roxbury and Dorchester fur-
nished all the presidents and treasurers of that institu-
tion.

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
Reverend Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris, William Clapp,
Ebenezer T. Andrews the partner of Isaiah Thomas, of
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, the
Harris, the 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

1Letter of Thomas Motley.

2Dr. 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 tomorrow.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 27

Forest Hills Cemetery ;* 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, raised by Mrs. Diana Crehore, who still
lives at the advanced age of eighty-four years. This was
brought to notice in 1843, being the first seedling
American grape at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society deemed worthy of notice.

Zebedee Cook, the second president of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society, some fifty years since had a
large garden opposite the Andrews estate, on the east
side of the then turapike 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 Socie-
ty. His orchards were extensive, embracing 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. This place was
once the residence of Thomas Motley, father of the his-
torian, John Lathrop Motley, and his brother, Thomas
Motley, the president of the Massachusetts Society for
Promoting Agriculture, who were here born.

Samuel Downer,’ one of the founders of the Horticul-

1The Massachusetts Agricultural Club, desiring 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.

2 He was son of the celebrated Dr. Downer, ‘‘ the fighting surgeon,” who
had a personal encounter with a British soldier on his return from the battle
at Concord. ‘Their fire having missed, Downer knocked him down and then
ran him through with his own bayonet, and said, ‘‘it was not ten minutes
before I got another good shot.” Dr. Downer was in prison in Halifax, from

28 THE HORTICULTURE OF

tural Society, had a “large orchard which still remains
in good order under the intelligent care of his son,
Samuel Downer, Jr. 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 interested 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 Vose, the third president of the Horticultural
Society, had a fine plantation of fruits, and especially
grew to great perfection the Duchesse d’Angouleme
pear, which sometimes commanded seventy-five cents
to a dollar each for extraordinary specimens.

William Oliver, vice-president of the Horticultural
Society, had a good orchard of pears and other fruits
which, after his death, became the residence of ex-Gov-
ernor Henry J. Gardner.

Another very old garden in Dorchester, of which our
valued citizen, Mr. John Richardson, has been the occu-
pant and owner for a long course of years, deserves
a record in our Memorial volume. The house was the
birthplace of Edward Everett, and is understood to
have been built in colonial times by Gov. Oliver, who
is supposed to have laid out the garden, which is
now interesting from its old trees and antique appear-
ance, 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,

which he escaped; was also in the Dartmoor and the Forten prisons for
a while, and was in several desperate engagements under John Paul Jones,
both as soldier and surgeon. He was engaged in the expedition up the
Kennebec to Canada. Massachusetts awarded him fifteen dollars for his loss
of surgical instruments.—Letter of Samuel Downer, Jr., May 5, 1881 (since
deceased).

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 29

treasurer of the Horticultural Society, was, and is still,
famous for the size and beauty of its fruit, produced by
pruning his trees into the shape of a wine-glass.

And here, in the Dorchester district, if I may be per-
mitted to allude to it, are the experimental grounds of
the writer, formerly the estate of Gov. Increase Sumner,
which, at the time of his death, 1799, passed into the
hands of his son, Gen. William H. Sumner, one of the
founders of the Horticultural Society, and finally to
its present owner. On these experimental 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 was exhibited, on one occasion,
four hundred and four distinct varieties of the pear.
Here was originated, by the art of hybridization, the Ca-
mellias Wilderi and 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 founda-
tion, in the year 1839, the entire collection of green-
house and garden plants to which we have alluded
before.

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 descendants, who now reside on it. In
the account books of Jonathan Seaver, from 1731 and

30 THE HORTICULTURE OF

on, we find that he was largely interested in the
manufacture of “Sider.” From 1740 to 1749, we find
the Reverend Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South
Church, annually charged with from three to five
barrels of “ Sider” for several years, and that in April
24th, 1749, Mr. Seaver credited him with “Thirty ©
Pounds in Cash, old tenor in part, for Sundries.”

From the preceding extracts we may infer that an
abundance of apples was raised at that time. 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
hundred years ago, the bears were attracted to them
from the “Rocky Wilderness Land” that lay to the
southwest, towards what is now Forest Hills. Upon
one occasion his bearship lingered tasting till he was
discovered. Mr. Seaver and his neighbors gave chase,
and finally captured him on the marsh land in Dor-
chester in the vicinity of what is now Crescent Avenue.
The neighbors were invited to a feast in honor of the
occasion, at Mr. Seaver’s house, the bear furnishing
the chief dish as well as a steak for each guest to take
home.

Mrs. Parker remembers several large ancient pear
trees that stood on the home lot and were old and vig-
orous when she was young. An Orange and a Minot
pear tree of great size in the trunk, and an excellent
pear for cooking, and a Gennetin pear tree still remain
on the lawn, whose age none can remember, which bears
two or three bushels yearly of its small, early fruit.
During the period of Ebenezer Seaver’s service in Con-
gress, which ended in 1815, Col. Matlock, a gentleman
he met there, gave him some scions from the original

BOSTON AND VICINITY. OL

Seckel pear tree, near Philadelphia. He sent them care-
fully home in a letter, and his son Jonathan grafted them
before his return, they being the first of the kind, as
far as he knew, in this vicinity. The tree is still
flourishing, and on Saturday, September 27th, 1879, there
were picked from it over two barrels of pears. One
individual pear, by actual measurement, was eight and
five-eights inches each way round. The family had
never seen one to equal it in size. There was also
where Schuyler street now is, an immemorial Iron pear
tree, so tall that the crown of the tree was usually
not picked. In the latter part of the eighteenth
century and the first of the present, the fruit of the
mulberry was much esteemed, there being few of the
many small fruits now cultivated. The widow of the
second Ebenezer realized in one season seventy dollars
from the fruit sold from one large 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, the trees
having been 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 that he
planted.'

Prior to the present century Judge John Lowell was a
leading patron in the promotion of improved agriculture,
and was president of the Massachusetts Society for Pro-
moting Agriculture, for many years. He had an orchard,
garden, and one of the first greenhouses, and contributed
to the fund for establishing the Botanic Garden at Cam-
bridge.” This property was inherited by his son, Hon.

1QLetter of Miss Parker, granddaughter of Hon. Eben Seaver.
2 Augustus Lowell’s letter.

32 THE HORTICULTURE OF

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 General Dearborn as the Columella of
the Northern States. He presided at the preliminary
meeting which eventuated in the establishment of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Mr. Lowell received scions of fruit trees from Mr.
Knight, President of the Horticultural Society of Lon-
don, and other eminent pomologists of Europe, and so
liberally distributed them to his friends that his trees
were often crippled in their growth. Mr. Lowell 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 pomology
in New England than Mr. Lowell. ;

This estate was next inherited by the Hon. John A.
Lowell, our esteemed and venerable citizen, who
added largely to its glass structures, one of which was
an Orchid house, to contain 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.

_ In Roxbury was the garden of Gen. Henry A. 8.
Dearborn, who will ever be gratefully remembered as
the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society. He was also a great leader in the establish-
ment 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

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 55)

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 in-
stitutions than to any other man. His labors, addresses
and communications for the press in regard to the
science and practice of horticulture and rural embellish-
ments, have given to his name an earthly immortality.

Here also was the garden of the late Enoch Bartlett,
one of the founders and first vice-presidents of the Mas-
sachusetts 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 previously owned by Captain
Brewer, on which he had planted many fruit trees.
When Mr. Bartlett purchased this place in 1820 he
found two young trees which, on fruiting, proved to be
the above, both of which still bear fruit, the largest
being over forty inches in circumference three feet
above the ground. This pear was afterwards ascer-
tained to be the Williams Bon Chretien, an English
variety.’

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 of Joseph
Barrell, of Charlestown, when it was only a foot high,
but a few hours previous to Mr. Barrell’s death.

One of the most noted places for the production of
fruits and vegetables in the Roxbury district for the
last century is the old Williams homestead, on Wal-

1 Letter of Allen Putnam.

84 THE HORTICULTURE OF

nut 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 culti-
vator 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 vegeta-
bles that it could boast of. This spot is also memorable
as the birthplace of the brothers John Davis Williams,
and Moses Williams, so renowned as merchants of
Boston, the latter now surviving at ninety years in
a healthful old age, from whom the writer has received

the following letter :
Boston, May 10, 1881.

Hon. Marsuatyt P. Witper: Dear Sir,—Your favor of yesterday was re-
ceived this morning. The house on Walnut avenue, inthe Roxbury District,
where my brother, Aaron D. Williams was born, and where he died, was
originally a Leanto, two stories on the front and one story onthe rear. It was
inherited by my father, John DD. Williams, who was baptised John, married
Hannah Davis, and after his marriage, petitioned the legislature, and took the
name of John Davis Williams. My brother, the oldest child of my father,
was baptised John, and after he became a man, he 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, my father received so few letters
that no trouble ever arose on this account. My father, and I am almost cer-
tain, 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 was no
better cultivators 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 ac-
quired by uncommon ability, as a cultivator of fruit and vegetables. My
brother Aaron made all to 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,
MOSES WILLIAMS.

Another fine old place in Roxbury to be remembered
was that of Rufus G. Amory, with its long avenues,
entering from Washington street, bordered with noble

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 30

elms, which still live. He was much interested in orna-
mental culture, importing trees and shrubs from Europe,
and, it is said, received our common 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,” for a long time was the resi-
dence of the late John D. W. Williams, but is now
(1881). being laid out into streets and cut up into
house lots.

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 Company, was famous fifty years ago
for its Roxbury Russet apples, often producing a thou-
sand barrels a year; and also for cherries, sending to
market forty to fifty bushels daily in the season, and
occasionally a four-ox team to Providence with seventy-
five bushels of cherries.

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 exporters of this fruit, shipping them by
thousands upon thousands of barrels to foreign ports.'

Nor should we omit the ancestral home of our worthy
citizen, Aaron Davis Weld, in West Roxbury, so cele-
brated for its orchards in olden time, and for the
last forty years for its famous apples and the renowned
Weld farm cider and vinegar, where now are grown

1 Charles F. Curtis’s letter.

36 THE HORTICULTURE OF

great crops of fruits in addition to two hundred tons
of hay a year.

In Roxbury, too, is the splendid estate of William
Gray, Jr., on the borders of Dorchester, ex-president
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. This was
formerly a portion of the celebrated estate of Col. Swan,
long imprisoned in France for debt not of his own con-
tracting, and one of those who helped throw the tea
into the harbor.t| Here Mr. Gray has offered the public
fine illustrations of landscape gardening by the laying
out of his beautiful grounds. From his conservatories
and grounds our exhibitions have been constantly
enriched with rare and costly plants, and his enterprise
keep up with the progress of the age, having for the
last three years won the $150 Silver Cup for his roses.

Roxbury, from the early part of this century, was
distinguished for its greenhouses... We have alluded to
the Lowells and others reaching back to that time.
Among those of the present century was that of John
Lemist, who was lost on the ill-fated steamboat Lex-
ington on the route from Boston to Providence in 1840.
This place was formerly the residence of Judge
Auchmuty. He being a tory his property was con-
fiseated. Gov. Increase Sumner was afterwards the
owner, then Beza Tucker, and in 1824 it passed to Mr.
Lemist.* 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 remarkable,
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,

*Hon. Thomas C. Amory’s letter.
* See Boston Memorial, Vol. II , p. 348.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 37
were situated in Roxbury, opposite the estate of Gov.
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. He bestowed great attention on the
cultivation of the dahlia, tulip and pansy. He annually
gave public exhibitions of the tulip under a canvas
tent erected for the purpose, 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, which he had produced from seed.

On the borders of Jamaica Pond is the garden of
Francis Parkman, LL. D., ex-president of the Horticul-
tural Society, who has become almost as widely known
for his experience in hybridizing plants as for his his-
torical writings. By the process of hybridizing he
obtained the Lilium Parkmanii, for the stock of which
a florist in London gave him one thousand dollars.

Roxbury has been renowned for the many varieties
of fruits which have been originated within her borders.
Of these may be named the famous Roxbury Russet,
Williams’ Favorite, and Seaver Sweet apples; the
Dearborn’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, Robert B. and John M. Forbes, Mrs.
F. Cunningham, Miss Russell, and John W. Brooks,
whose pear orchard contains six hundred trees of the
Beurré d’Anjou, generally considered “the best.”
Nor would we omit the residence of Col. Henry S.
Russell, in olden time of Francis Amory, now the

38 THE HORTICULTURE OF

“Home Farm,’ with its world-renowned “Smuggler”
breed of horses, its extensive avenues of old oaks, wal-
nuts, elms, maples and pines, its broad landscape and
ornamental grounds.

The town of Brookline has been celebrated, from an
early date for the elegant residences of our wealthy
merchants and opulent citizens, and for its gardens,
orchards, and ornamental grounds. “ Brookline was, for
a long time, preéminent in the little cordon of towns
which have so long constituted the exquisite envi-
rons of Boston, embossing it with rich and varied mavr-
gins of lawn and lake and meadow and wooded hillside,
and encircling its old ‘plain neck,’ as Wood called
it in his “New England’s Prospect,” with an unfading
wreath of bloom and verdure.’ Here were the homes
of the Amorys, the Aspinwalls; the Perkinses, Sulli-
vans, Sargents, Lees, Gardners, 'Tappans, of Gen. Theo-
dore Lyman, Benjamin Guild, Nathaniel Ingersoll Bow-
ditch, John HE. Thayer, and others, who have been
patrons of horticultural improvement; and although
the citizens of Brookline protested in 1775 against
the introduction of the leaves of the Tea plant without
their consent, they have been proverbially friends of
rural taste and the adornment of their residences with
other beautiful trees and plants.

In the very early part of this century the gardens
and greenhouses of Col. Thomas Handasyd Perkins
were particularly distinguished. Col. Perkins was one
of the most eminent merchants of our city, and his
public benefactions, especially in founding the Institu-
tion for the Blind, will ever be gratefully remembered.
He and his brother, Samuel G. Perkins, inherited a love
for fruits and flowers from their grandmother, Mrs. Kd-

1Mr. Winthrop’s Address at the dedication of the new Town Hall of
Brookline.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 39
mund Perkins, who was Edna Frothingham, of Charles-
town. Col. Perkins’ residence in France and other for-
eign lands, where he had seen fine fruits and flowers,
stimulated his natural taste, and induced him to purchase
this estate in 1800, when he commenced the building of
his house, the laying out of his grounds, and the erec-
tion of greenhouses and glass structures for the cultiva-
tion of fruits and flowers, and until the establishment
of the magnificent conservatories and fruit houses of
his nephew, John Perkins Cushing, at Watertown (now
the residence of Samuel R. Payson, which still exists
in the highest state of improvement), his place was
considered the most advanced in horticultural science
of any in New England. For fifty years Col. Perkins’
estate was kept in the best manner by experienced for-
eign gardeners, and at an expense of more than ten
thousand dollars annually. He frequently received
trees and plants from Europe, the products of which
were prominent at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society. In 1840 he introduced the Vic-
toria Hamburg, West’s St. Peter’s, and Cannon Hall
Muscat grape vines, which were presented to him by
Sir Joseph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of Devon-
shire. Col. P. gave a description of the conservatory
of the Duke: 275 feet long by 150 wide, and 65 feet
high, costing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
or fifty thousand pounds sterling.

Next to be named were the garden and fruit houses
of Samuel G. Perkins, which were presented to him
by his brother, Col. Perkins. They were selected on
account of being situated between the Colonel’s and
James Perkins’ beautiful estate at Pine Bank, an elder
brother, and where now resides his grandson, E. N.
Perkins, as a favorable location for Samuel to indulge
his natural taste, and the skill which he had acquired

40 THE HORTICULTURE OF

in horticultural science by residing in foreign lands,
and by his acquaintance with experienced cultiva-
tors of both fruits and flowers. His fruit houses were
two hundred feet in length, in and around which were
grown the choicest varieties of grapes, peaches and
plums; there the Golden Nectarine was produced .from
the stone planted by him.’ Mr. Perkins was the intro-
ducer of the Duchesse d’Angouleme pear, the Franconia
raspberry, and other fruits from France. He attended
personally to the pruning and cultivation of his trees,
and his success was greater than that of his brother.
Mr. Samuel G. Perkins usually wore a button-hole
bouquet in the lappel of his coat, and was fond of sur-
prising his brother with superior fruits. One day he
came with a basket of gorgeous grapes, peaches and
apricots, and said: “Brother Tom, I know you love
fine fruit, and fearing you do not often get it, I have
brought you something worth having.” “Thank you,
Brother Sam, I try to be contented with what I have,
and I certainly should be if you were not always burst-
ing in and giving me something that makes me envy
you.” ?

In Brookline is the old Aspinwall estate. This was the
birthplace of our beloved citizen, the late Col. Thomas
Aspinwall, where still remains the same old mansion*
house in which he and his father, Dr. William Aspinwall,
were born. The “Aspinwall House” was built by Peter
Aspinwall in 1660, is now owned (1880) by Hon.
William Aspinwall, and has never been out of the
possession of descendants of the same name. Here
were planted by Dr. William Aspinwall extensive
orchards of Baldwin and Roxbury Russet apples, and
other fruits. Some few trees are still remaining near

1 Letter of Augustus T. Perkins. -
* See Boston Memorial, Vol. I., p.. 221.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 4]

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 Aspin-
wall, 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 old Aspin-
wall Elm, formerly so renowned, which stood at the
corner of the old house, was destroyed by the gale of
September, 1863. Dr. George B. Emerson; in his
report on the trees and shrubs of Massachusetts in the
edition of 1846, says: “The Aspinwall Elm in Brookline,
standing near the ancient house belonging to that
family, and which was known to be 181 years old in
1837, then measured 26 feet 5 inches at the ground,
or as near to it as the roots would allow us to measure,
and 16 feet 8 inches at five feet. The branches
extended 104 feet from southeast to northwest, and 95
from northeast to southwest,’ Some persons believe
that this old elm was coeval in age with the purchase
by Peter Aspinwall in 1650. The Aspinwall estate is
now the property of the Aspinwall Land Co.!

The most extensive and elegant estate in Brookline
is that of the venerable Ignatius Sargent, whose success
in grape culture forty years ago was so great that he ex-
hibited 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,
the donor to the city of the Lethean statue on the

1 Letter of Hon. Wm. Aspinwall.

42 THE HORTICULTURE OF

Boston Public Garden, and of the statue of Hamilton
on Commonwealth Avenue, and who was thirty years
ago much interested in the growth of rhododendrons,
azaleas and other plants. Under the supervision of
Professor Sargent, this place, with its magnificent land-
scape, its conservatories of plants, and its extensive
collection of conifers, rhododendrons and azaleas, is
every year thrown open to the public. With its exten-
sive and rare collection of native and foreign trees and
shrubs, and its wide and grand embrace of one hundred
acres in extent, this estate 1s one of great interest for
the study of landscape and ornamental culture.

General Lyman, towhom we have alluded, expended
large sums of money in the erection of his house in
1842, 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 his worthy son, Col. Theodore,
who still resides there, and whose son of the same
name, a promising lad, we hope will live to per-
petuate 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, agricul-
ture, and moral reform.* He gave over seventy
thousand dollars to found the State Reform School at
Westborough; ten thousand dollars to the Farm School,
in Boston Harbor, and ten thousand dollars to the Massa-
chusetts Horticultural Society.

In Brookline, also, is the elegant villa, with its splen-
did avenues and grounds, of the late John Eliot Thayer,
left by him to Mrs. Thayer, now Mrs. Robert C. Win-

* See Mr. Bugbee’s chapter in Boston Memorial, Vol. III.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 43

throp, where a most generous hospitality, and cordial
welcome are extended to the numerous friends of Mr.
and Mrs. Winthrop, 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
alluded 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 in-
herits the same taste for rural life and culture for which
Mr. Lowell was so renowned. His father, as we have
seen, also possessed like tastes, when they resided in
Summer street, where foreign grapes and pears were
grown in open air. The Saint Germain pear was very
large; and of the Brown Beurré, Mr. Gardner says: “I
have never seen finer specimens.”

No doubt good gardens were early made at Muddy
Brook when it was a part of Boston. The elegant
’ estate of the Hon. 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 propor-
tions, now measures, at six inches above the ground,
nine feet two inches in circumference. 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 trees at his house in Boston with “ Button
pears.” The grafts were probably taken from this tree.’
Hon. William Amory has a lovely place at Longwood.

1 Hon. Amos A. Lawrence’s letter.

44 THE HORTICULTURE OF

Cambridge was celebrated for her gardens and the
ornamental culture of her grounds, even before the
commencement of this present century. “ At the close
of the Revolution Andrew Cragie purchased the Wash-
ington headquarters, now the residence of the poet
Longfellow, enlarged the house, and laid out the
grounds in the taste of that period. The stream sur-
rounding a small island, with a few pine trees upon it,
may still be seen. On the western side of the man-
sion the tall hedges and clumps of lilacs are all that
remain of this early garden. |

Mr. Cragie had a greenhouse on the grounds where
the dormitory of the Episcopal Seminary now stands.
This structure was burnt 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 seems to have been the forerunners of two great
institutions in Cambridge, —ice in summer, and flow-
ers in winter.

Thomas Brattle, born in Cambridge in 1742, became
a royalist refugee in 1775, and was banished by the
act of 1778. But in 1784 he returned to Cambridge,
his property being restored to him, took possession of
his patrimony, the house which now bears his name,
next to the University Press, began to improve his
grounds according to the taste of a century ago, and
from that time until his death, in 1801, his garden,
possessing 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 by the tooth of

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 45

time, the last one disappearing about fifteen years ago.
Mr. Brattle, with a native taste for horticulture, and his
observation acquired in: 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 University Press 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 dur-
ing 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; who married the daughter
of Mr. Batchelder.] The garden is still partially
enclosed by a brick wall, which has been a land-
mark on Brattle street for the last one hundred and
fifty years. Here was probably the first extensive col-
lection 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 mulberry
' tree, ornament the place, and still bear fruit. Here
are still large Hawthorn trees, which it is believed
were planted by the Vassalls in 1750, and which still
produce a profusion of white blossoms, and are a
harbor for winter birds who feed on the ripe haws.

Here, near by, is the historic Washington elm,
much shorn of its glory, believed to be one of
a row of trees planted about two hundred years ago.
Under it Washington took command of the Amer-
ican army, and at that time it must have attained
its first century. Here, too, is the old Whitefield elm,
of about the same size, which was cut down some ten

A6 THE WORTICULTURE OF

or twenty years ago, and under which Whitefield
preached in 1740, when he was not allowed to enter
any pulpit in Cambridge. Only one of this row
survives."

Cambridge has been renowned for the culture of
fruits, especially of the pear and plum, as the exhibi-
tions 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.

Cambridge has 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 super-
vision and direction of the latter gentleman, associated
with their sons in the profession, he has supervised
and carried on the raising and testing of fruits, the
raising of seeds, and the hybridization and acquisition of
plants which have given him and his brother a renowned
reputation as horticulturists both at home and in foreign
lands. Mr. Hovey’s love of nature and his ambitious
and enterprising disposition have inspired him to prove
under his own personal inspection every thing 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 have been ex-
hibited on a single occasion three hundred varieties of
pears. Here were raised by the crossing of the straw-
berry 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.

1 Letter of Mrs. Isabella James.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 47

The collection of plants contains grand old speci-
mens, 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
commencéd the hybridization of plants, by which
have been produced some of the most remarkable
Camellias our country can boast of :—such as 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
Society. Many of these Mr. C. M. Hovey exhibited in
London, in person. The Camellia house of Hovey &
Co. is one hundred feet long, forty 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 varieties of ornamental trees and shrubs,
among which are remarkable specimens of elegant and
- curious trees worthy of the long life which it has taken
to produce them. Mr.C. M. Hovey, for four years pres-
ident of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was
the editor of the Magazine of Horticulture 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. Triumphing 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 population of active business
people has made, perhaps, as great advances in horti-
cultural science, as any other area of the same size

48 THE HORTICULTURE OF

around Boston. Here are numerous beautiful resi-
dences, 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 cul-
tivation of fruits, trees and plants for nearly a hundred
years. The first nursery of any considerable note in
New England was commenced 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 commenced 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 ex-
tensive in New England. In 1825 Mr. Kenrick took his °
elder son, William, into partnership, and continued the
business until his decease in 1833. Peaches and cur-
rants were here extensively cultivated, and there were
manufactured in 1826 three thousand and six hundred
gallons of currant wine. William Kenrick’s nursery at
Nonantum Hill in Newton, established in 1823, contin-
ued for twenty-seven years, and for a part of this time
he imported and sold more fruit trees than any other
nurseryman in New England. John A. Kenrick, brother
of William, also pursued the nursery business on the old
estate until his death in 1870." William Kenrick was one
of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
a zealous, enterprising citizen, and the author of the “ New
American Orchardist,” and a public writer. He entered
largely into the Morus Multicaulis speculation, propa-
gating hundreds of thousands of this tree both on his

I History of the Mass. Hort. Soc., pp. 33, 34.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 49

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 presi-
dent 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 that come to his notice, and writing for the
press. |

In Brighton there was a nursery established in 1816,
by Jonathan Winship, also a founder of the Massachu-
setts 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 a!so 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 of such in this section of the
country, and were among the first to send cut flowers
to the Boston markets for sale. To their collection
Sir Admiral Isaac Coffin made valuable donations which
he collected in Europe.’

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 H. B. Breck and Sons. Forty years since Mr.
Warren was largely interested in the cultivation of

1 Letter of Lyman F. Winship. Also, chapter in Boston Memorial on
Brighton, Vol. III.

50 THE HORTICULTURE 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 Mrs. Abby Wilder, he propagated them largely and
went to Europe with them, where he made considera-
ble sales. Mr. Warren is now in California, and has
been editor of the “ California Farmer ” for more than
thirty years.

Joseph Breck, afterwards president, and one of the
original members of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, had grounds in Brighton for the cultivation of -
ornamental plants and the production of seeds, and his
name is still continued in the firm of Joseph Breck and
Sons, the oldest seed house in New England, it having
existed more than fifty years, succeeding that of John B.
Russell, to whom we shall allude hereafter. Mr. Breck
was one of the foremost promoters of the culture of
fruits and flowers, and wrote frequently for the press.
He was proprietor and for some years the editor of the
“ Horticultural Register,’ and other works. His Book
of Flowers has passed through many editions, ane 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 intelli-
gence of their proprietor. Here, under one continuous
roof of glass of 18,000 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 was once owned
by Jonathan Amory, father of Hon. Thomas C. Amory,
and 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

BOSTON AND VICINITY. Hill

known in the United States, in which were grown ex-
tensively 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 the
exhibitions of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting
Agriculture, with great success, under the patronage
and supervision of such leaders as John Lowell, John
Welles, Peter C. Brooks, Gen. Dearborn, Josiah Quincy,
John Prince, and the gentlemen above named.

There is a splendid illustration of the wonderful
progress of horticultural improvement and refined taste
that cannot be omitted, and may, without detraction
from any other, be considered as standing at the
head of all others in New England, if not in our
country. This is in Wellesley, the estate of Mr. H.
Hollis Hunnewell, comprising in all, with its fields and
forests, about five hundred acres, on which he com-
menced 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 com-
menced work upon it. He then laid out his splendid
avenues and plots, and commenced the planting of
his most interesting and instructive collection of hardy
trees and plants, not only of our own country, but of
all such, from California, Japan, and other lands, that
would endure our climate. His collection of rhododen-

o2 THE HORTICULTURE OF

drons and azaleas, the largest. in our country, embraces
many thousands of plants, to which he is constantly
adding everything new and rare, demonstrating,
beyond doubt, that a very large number of varieties
grown in Kurope may be successfully cultivated in
our climate. 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 canvass tent of seven’ thousand square feet,
and these, with the whole of his magnificent estate,
he opens to the public once a week gratuitously.
A few years since he made, in the name-of the Massa-
chusetts 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 generously given to constitute
a fund for the Society, encouraging the growth of
these plants. 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 been 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
a‘delightful view through different openings, are most
charming. The magnificent velvet lawn in front of
his house, the lovely Lake Waban in the rear, the
Italian garden, the parapets, ballustrades, statues and
vases, with the clipped trees of various forms, leads
one to suppose, as Mr. Sargent says, “that we are on
the Lake of Como.” Here are fruit and vegetable
gardens enclosed with ornamental hedges ; a conserva-

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 53

tory attached to the house, six plant houses, and six
fruit houses, and numerous and varied illustrations of
ornamental beds of flowers. The whole, for twenty-
seven years, has been under the charge of Mr. F. L.
Harris, his gardener, and constitutes a place unsur-
passed in this country for the acquisition of everything
new or old in horticulture that pleases the eye, charms
the senses, or gratifies the taste, affording also, with
the contributions and benefactions of Mr. Hunnewell
to the Horticultural Society, a noble illustration of his
love of the objects which he has sought to promote.

Here, in Wellesley, is the Wellesley Female Col-
lege, founded mainly by the munificence of Henry F.
Durant, where is taught, as a branch of education, the
science of botany and the raising of plants from seeds,
and whose splendid avenues and ornamental grounds
and collection of plants are happy illustrations of mod-
ern progress in horticulture.

Nor must we omit some record of the famous Ridge
Hill Farm of William E. Baker, containing eight hun-
dred and fifty acres, with its ten miles of avenues, its
artificial lake, one and ‘a half miles in circumference,
its grotto under ground, one-fourth of a mile in length,
several greenhouses, numerous illustrations of the
artistic bedding of plants under the care of his gar-
dener, Mr. Greaves, and to which we may add the
grand hotel of two hundred and fifty rooms.

And just across the river, opposite Mr. Hunnewell’s,
is the fine country seat of Benjamin Pierce Cheney,
whose love of horticulture and the fine arts induced
him to place 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.

54 THE HORTICULTURE OF

Watertown and Waltham have been celebrated for
the residences of wealthy merchants and citizens, as
far back as the last century. Belmont, at Water-
town, 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 kept up for more than
half a century in the most improved manner. 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. This estate, some sixty years
ago, was the residence of Eben Preble, an old merchant
of Boston, and brother of Commodore Preble. He built
the brick walls still enclosing the grounds in which the
present conservatories and other glass structures are
located. Mr. Preble, in 1805, imported into Boston
one hundred and fifty varieties of fruit trees, and so
great has been the improvement in our fruits that
only two of the varieties are now considered valuable.
This estate passed to Nathaniel Amory, who married
the daughter of Mr. Preble; thence to R. D. Shephard
about 1850, in a few years to Mr. Cushing, and, after
his death, about 1860, to Mr. Payson.

Mr. Cushing was a great lover‘of the works of nature,
and, with lavish expenditures of wealth, he improved
this estate in the highest sense of the word, by the lay-
ing out of the grounds and by the erection of numerous
plant and fruit houses. He contributed to the exhibi-
tions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and he
opened his grounds once a week to the public in
the summer season, making his place the most famous
in his day for horticultural progress in New England.

The present estate of Mr. Payson embraces about

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 55

two hundred acres, which, varied with its fine avenues
bordered with old oak, walnut, and tulip trees (one
of the last is eighty feet in height), and ornamental
trees, rhododendrons, azaleas, and other 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, with several other houses 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 a 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 by Miss Mary Pratt, who
still, 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 perpetuated from year to year in excel-
_ lent order.

Near by is the elegant villa and estate of the
late Alvin Adams, renowned for his enterprise and suc- *
cess as the founder of the great Adams Express Com-
pany. His extensive lawns and ornamental grounds,
together with his valuable picture gallery, have made
this place one of the most attractive in the vicinity of

56 THE HORTICULTURE 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 Horticul-
tural Society, where his heirs still reside. Although a
merchant in active business, 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 that have been on exhibition. Before his removal
from Boston, his love of flowers ied him to establish a
small garden on Tremont street, north of the Masonic
Temple, where, forty years ago, he cultivated the dahlia
extensively, frequently carrying off prizes for the excel-
lence of his specimens. Desirous of promoting the cause
of horticulture, he made a bequest of his estate at Water-
town to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for an
experimental garden, but afterwards revoked this sift
and gave the sum of twelve thousand dollars to the soci-
ety, the income of which was to be devoted for thirty
years for the purchase of books for its brary, then to
be transferred to the Lawrence Scientific School at
Cambridge.

Col. Leonard Stone was a prominent cultivator in
his day, and largely interested in the promotion of
both agriculture and horticulture. He was a member of
the Massachusetts Agricultural Club, and had frequent .
intercourse with Mr. Cushing, both as a friend and an
adviser. |

In Waltham, was the splendid estate of Gov.
Christopher Gore, which was considered in former times
as among the most elegant in our vicinity. The Gov-
ernor, while residing in England as commissioner for the
adjustment of claims under the Jay treaty, evidently

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 57

imbibed a taste for the life of a country gentleman, and
acquired a knowledge of the then accepted style of build-
ing and landscape gardening; his house and grounds
were arranged str ictly on an 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 plan of which was considered
most admirable and aristocratic, and in the most. ap-
proved style. The drawing room was furnished in the
gay and graceful fashion of Louis XVL.; the other rooms
with substantial rich mahogany, much of it of the old
ante-revolutionary type, the whole being complete and
elegant. 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 one opening that
permitted a view of the river a half mile across the
lawn and the fields beyond it. The trees which bor-
dered the avenues and walks and ornamented the
grounds were tastefully grouped, occasionally convert-
ing the walks into Gothic aisles, one of which formed a
_ vista from the east window of the library. The tradi-
tion is that the Governor and Mrs. Gore planted many
of these trees with 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 cultiva-
tion, and a large group of barns and farm buildings.
From this elegant mansion might be seen the Governor
taking an airing in his orange-colored coach, with
coachman, footman, and outriders all in livery, and with
a stateliness quite in keeping with his fine place.’

This place, on the death of Gov. Gore, passed into

1 Letter of Col. Henry Lee.

58 THE HORTICULTURE OF

the hands of William Payne, then to Gen. Theodore Ly-
man, and on the latter’s removal to Brookline, to Copley
Greene. Now it isa place distinguished for numerous
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 devel-
oped 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 heid the Gore
place by lease.

Another place is especially worthy of notice in Wal-
tham. ‘Lyman Place,” the home of Theodore Lyman,
one of Boston’s renowned merchants, where he and his
eldest son, George W. Lyman, lived from 1795 until
their deaths,—the latter having died Sep. 24, 1880,
aged 95 years, 10 months. This estate was bought in
1793, and the mansion house erected- in 1795. 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 English gardener by the name of Bell. He
commenced laying out and grading the grounds, which
took several seasons to finish, but when completed they
were the finest illustration in the country of modern
landscape gardening in their time; ‘“ 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 leading
features of the place at that time. The oldest of these
trees were set out early in this century, and are still in

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 59

a healthful condition.” “The peculiar thing,’ says
Col. 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.”!

Charlestown, in the early part of this century, was
distinguished for its good gardens and fine fruits.
Here was a part of the estate of Nathan Tufts, who had
a fine fruit garden, now occupied by the Rev. Dr. Lam-
bert, Rector of St. John’s Church. Another fine resi-
dence 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 afterwards 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 fruit trees 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. Mr. James Hunnewell was an enter-
prising and intelligent merchant, and visited the Sand-
wich Islands three times during his life, spending several

1Letters of George W. Lyman and Col. Theodore Lyman.

60 THE HORTICULTURE OF

years there, and established in 1826 the mercantile
house which still exists, and though passing through
several parties since, it now has a good standing, and
is, we believe, one of, if not the oldest American houses
existing there.’

Among other gardens was that of 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 after-
wards 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 the famous Keen’s Seedling strawberry from
Europe. Here was a greenhouse containing a fine collec-
tion 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 Charles-
town, 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
McLean Asylum, which was one of the most distinguished
in our region.” It had large gardens and greenhouses,
which cost about fifty thousand dollars, and in those

1Mr. J. F. Hunnewell’s letter.
2 Drake’s Middlesex, p. 177.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 61

days was called a “ show place.’ It was called Pleasant
Hill, probably the same as Poplar Grove, and was called
Cobble Hill in the Revolution. Mr. Barrell had a fine
garden in Summer street, in Boston. He also drained
and planted a garden at the lower part of Franklin street,
and owned the famous “ Mystic farms.” He was a very
enterprising man, and one of the company which owned
the ships Columbia and Washington, that first crossed
the bar of the great river of Oregon, now bearing the
name of one of these vessels, on our Pacific coast.'

Horticulture had a cordial reception in the early
days of Medford, even back as far as the building of
the house of Mathew Craddock. The “Royall house,”
once occupied by Col. 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 sur-
mounted by a cupola, and a statue of Mercury.? This
estate was purchased in 1810 by Jacob Tidd, who
afterwards 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 1759, leaving the property to his
son Isaac, and by the name of Royall it is still known.
There were many fine gardens in Medford in our own
day ; such were those of Timothy Bigelow, Peter C.
Brooks, Thatcher Magoun, and others who were
interested in horticultural pursuits, and had good
gardens and greenhouses.

West Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, Concord, Wil-
mington, Winchester, Woburn, Reading, Revere, and
other towns in our vicinity, have been prominent in pro-
moting the science of horticulture during the present cen-

10Old Landmarks, p. 254.
2 Drake’s Middlesex County, Vol. 2, p. 165.

62 THE HORTICULTURE OF

tury; and from them we have derived not only fine
fruits and flowers, but the choicest vegetables which
are to be seen in any markets of the world. From
Wilmington came the world-renowned Baldwin apple,
which constitutes the largest portion of the apples ex-
ported from our market, filling more than three-fourths
of the six hundred thousand barrels that are sent
annually abroad. The history of this apple is as fol-
lows : *

Wosgurn, Sept. 28, 1880.

Mr. Woopman: Dear Sir,—Your note of the 26th inst. was received,
asking me to give you the account my grandfather, 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 wood-
pecker bird 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 Col. 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 they were in the Thompsons’ hands they were called Pecker
apples, after the old bird. The tree stood in Wilmington, near Butters Row
Road.

LEONARD THOMPSON,

92 years, 4 months.

Of the Baldwin apple, Deacon Thomas Griggs, of
Brookline, now in his ninety-fourth year, writes:
“Seventy years ago | 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 surveying for the canal, found a tree on the edge
of the wood which was almost killed by woodpeckers,

* Letter of Col. Leonard Thompson to Hon. Charles Woodman. [See note
to Mr. Adams’s chapter in Boston Memorial, Vol. IV.] .Brooks’s Medford,
p. 19, places the tree in that town near the Woburn line. See also Ellis’s
Count Rumford, pp. 875-77.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 63

but had on it a very few nice red apples. From this
tree he cut scions and from it sprang the Baldwin
apple.”

From the farm of the Hon. John Cummings, of
Woburn, were sent the present year two thousand
barrels of apples to Liverpool, most of which were
Baldwins; large quantities of fruits and vegetables for
the market were also raised there, among which may
be named seventy-five thousand beautiful heads of the
cauliflower, produced in one year.

From Concord comes some of the finest roses, straw-
berries, grapes, and vegetables, which grace our exhi-
bitions; but, if it had produced nothing else but the
Concord grape, its name, and that of Mr. Ephraim W.
Bull, its originator, would have been remembered with
gratitude. Her soil, once fertilized by the blood of her
sons, yields rich rewards for protecting and making
it more and more worthy of protection, and ker name
will ever be memorable in history as the spot where
the British soldiery were repulsed and driven back, on
the nineteenth of April, 1775.

One of the most conspicuous and extensive places
as regards horticultural improvement and landscape
gardening, and interesting also for its historic associa-
tions, is that of the Hon. Francis B. Hayes, at. Lex-
ington, president of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society. It is only nineteen years since he purchased
the estate of about thirteen acres on which his house
now stands. But the estate now embraces in one com-
pact body, near the centre of the town, and yet retired,
between four and five hundred acres of hill and dale,
forest, beautiful landscape pasture and arable fields
seldom surpassed in New England. A portion of this
estate belonged to the Rev. John Hancock, who was
the grandfather of the patriot of the same name. An

64 THE HORTICULTURE OF

ancient house built by the son of the above-named cler-
gyman for his father, and afterwards occupied by Rev.
Mr. Clark, on Hancock street, still stands neatly oppo-
site to Mr. Hayes’s place. Here Samuel Adams and
John Hancock were visiting on the morning of the
Battle of Lexington, April 19th, 1775, and at the same
time Miss Dorothy Quincy, afterwards the wife of Gov.
Hancock, was a guest. Adams and Hancock, hearing
of the approach of the British troops, fled over the hills
to Burlington, and it was on one of these hills,
as tradition has it, that Samuel Adams exclaimed,—
“What a glorious morning is this!” The highest
eminence on Mr. Hayes’s estate has been known
for a century as Granny Hill, being one of the
loftiest, if not the highest, in Middlesex county,
from which the Mount Wachuset in Princeton, and
Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, are clearly
visible. The scenery is not only wild and beautiful
but grand, being diversified by ravines, precipices, and
fertile valleys below. On the top of this hill is a pond
of about two acres, made by Mr. Hayes, and supplied
by living streams, from which water is carried all over
the estate. The aim of Mr. Hayes has been to follow
nature, making no attempt to produce striking effects
by changing the natural formation of the ground, but
only to develop its natural beauties. The extensive
avenues through the forests are made with special
reference to preserving the native woods and fields,
and planting the borders with shrubs suited to the
various locations, so as to secure harmony, both in the
cultivated and the wilder growth.

Within a few years Mr. Hayes has made most rapid
progress in horticultural improvement collecting exten-
sive importations from Europe, and purchasing at home
a vast quantity of ornamental trees and plants. His

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 65

collection of rhododendrons and azaleas is quite large,
and in the season of bloom they are displayed under a
tent fifty feet square, constructed for this purpose.
Here is a magnificent new conservatory with iron curve-
linear roof, sixty-five feet long, forty-two feet broad,
and twenty-seven feet high in the centre. This contains
many of the largest and most elegant plants in our
vicinity, especially of Camellias, Mr. Hayes having
secured half of the collection of the writer, some of which
are more than fifty years old. Mr. Hayes hasa grapery,
a rosary,‘and large winter pits for the preservation of —
half hardy plants. His exhibitions at the Horticultural
rooms of plants and cut flowers have carried off a
large number of first class prizes as testimonials of his
zeal and enterprise. Nor should we omit to state that
this estate has been brought to its present extent by
the purchase of lots of which Mr. Hayes has forty-nine
deeds. On it he keeps eighty head of cattle and ten
horses, and cuts a hundred and twenty-five to a hundred
and fifty tons of hay annually, besides raising large
crops of other agricultural products.

Here, in Lexington, were the farms and orchards of
Major Elias Phinney and Gen. Samuel Chandler, both
distinguished in the early part of this century for the
culture of fine fruits, especially of the apple.

Salem should be especially remembered in our record
for her interest in horticulture. Here Gov. John
Endicott planted a nursery, the first of which we
have any account in New England, a pear tree of
which still lives and bears fruit. His farm was known
as Orchard as early as 1643, and this tree stood near
his mansion. The Governor seems to have been
extensively engaged in the propagation of fruit trees,
for in 1644 he wrote to Gov. Winthrop, to whom
he was in the habit of sending trees: “I humblie and

66 THE HORTICULTURE OF

heartilie thanck you for your last lettre of newes
&c, for the trees you sent mee.” And in 1645 he wrote
to John Winthrop, Jr., at “Tenne Hills,” “what trees
you want at any tyme send to mee for them, I will
supply you as Jonge as I have a tree.” Horticulture
seems to have been much esteemed by the wealthy
people of Salem, and before the commencement of the
present century her merchant vessels brought home
trees, plants, and seeds from foreign lands. Mr. Ezekiel
Hersey Derby had, early in the present century, an
extensive garden, greenhouses, orchards, and belts of
forest trees—a most elegant and delightful home.
He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.’

The first record we have of the introduction of the
tomato is, that it was brought here in 1802 by Michele
Felice Corné, an Italian painter.”

The most important public benefit conferred on
the Pomology of New England, if not of our whole
country, was the establishment of the Pomological Gar-
den in Salem, by Robert Manning, in 1823. This was
for testing fruits, both native and foreign, and ascer-
taining what were adapted to our own climate. Mr.
Manning opened a correspondence with the cel2brated
Dr. Van Mons, of Belgium, Robert Thompson, the head
of the fruit department in the garden of the Horti-
cultural Society of London, and others in Europe and
our own country. From these various sources he re-
ceived trees and scions to carry on his work. He was
one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, prosecuting his labors with great enterprise
and zeal till the time of his death in 1842, when the

1¥Felt’s Annals of Salem, Vol. II, pp. 148 and 150.
2 Felt’s Annals of Salem, Vol. IT, p. 631.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 67

collection of fruits, of which he had personal observa-
tion, amounted to more than eighteen hundred varie-
ties. 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, are we indebted for the introduction of new
and choice fruits, for the identification of the different
varieties, the testing of their qualities, and for their
correct nomenclature.

Nor would we omit to record the valuable services
of the younger Robert Manning, who succeeded his
father in the good work ; who has continued to identify,
test, and disseminate the fruits which have, from time
to time come to notice, and who still occupies the old
family estate. He was one of the founders of the
American Pomological Society thirty-two years ago,
and is its present secretary. He is also secretary
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the
editor of its History for the first half century of its
existence.

Here, in Salem, were the garden and orchard of
John Fisk Allen, a most enterprising and successful
cultivator of fruits and flowers. In 1854 he raised
from seed the first hybridized American grape, Allen’s
Hybrid, which was produced from crossing the Isabella
with the foreign species. Here, also, was grown and
flowered that most magnificent water lily, the Victoria
regia, some of whose leaves were four fe2t in diameter,
and would sustain a boy of six years of age. Its gorgeous
flowers were of corresponding proportions, colored
illustrations of which were published in a large,
elegant folio volume, and dedicated to some of his
friends.

The orchards and garden of Joseph Sebastian Cabot,

68 THE HORTICULTURE OF

sixth president of the Massachusetts Horticultural So-
ciety, were distinguished for the enterprise and intelli-
gence of its proprietor in horticulture. Mr. Cabot was
much interested in the cultivation of the tulip of
which he had more than six hundred varieties, the
peony, and flowering plants. His collection of pears
was very extensive, and he raised several seedlings,
one of which bears his name. He was a critical
observer of the merits of fruits, and made a report in
1858 to the American Pomological Society, recommend-
ing the expulsion of more than six hundred varieties of
fruits which were unworthy of general cultivation,
and these fruits were rejected from its catalogue.

Here was the home of Col. Timothy Pickering, first
president of the Essex Agricultural Society, and first sec-
retary of the first agricultural society on this continent,
the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture.
Here is the extensive and well-managed farm of
George B. Loring, president of the New England Agri-
cultural Society during its whole history, who has well
earned the title of “agricultural orator,’ and is
now rewarded for his labors by the office of Commis-
sioner of the Department of Agriculture at Washing-
ton. The orchard on this farm has been famous in
past time, most of the trees having been imported by
Col. Pickman, its owner, early in this century, and
among which were the Pickman pippin, known in its
early days as the Garden apple.

Other gardens and orchards of Salem are worthy of
record, did our space permit. Here were the orchards
and gardens of the Dodges, Silsbees, of Charles Hoffman,
Francis Peabody, and other worthy citizens. Among
these may be named that of Mr. John M. Ives, one of the
founders of the Horticultural Society, who still lives;
the Putnams, who have been prominent as horticultu-

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 69

rists for more than fifty years, and that of John C. Lee,
a relative and companion of our John L. Gardner, with
whom in boyhood he early developed a love for botanical
and horticultural studies, which made him one of the
most enterprising and successful cultivators of fruits and
flowers; from his gardener came many of the finest
illustrations of horticultural science. One other garden,
that of Edward S. Rogers, should be noticed for his suc-
cess in the hybridization of the grape, being the second
effort within our knoweledge of attempts to cross the
native with the foreign species. For the mother
he took a wild grape of the woods, called the Mam-
moth, and crossed it with the Black Hamburg and
White Chasselas. The crosses by the Black Hamburg
produced the Barry, Essex, Herbert, Merrimac, Wilder,
and other varieties, whose bunches and berries resem-
ble the male parent. Those crossed by the White
Chasselas produced the Lindley, the Massasoit, and
other reddish grapes. Thus the influence of the for-
eign species was clearly demonstrated, and the fallacy
which had been entertained that species would not
cross was refuted. To Mr. Rogers are the public
indebted more than to any other man, primarily, for
the extensive hybridization of the grape, which now,
after twenty-five years, is producing the numerous
varieties of improved grapes which are yearly brought
to notice.

Lynn and Beverly had fine orchards and gardens
forty or fifty years since, many of which have been
perpetuated to this day. Among them were those of
Andrews and Henry A. Breed, who were among the
founders of the Horticultural Society ; Gen. Josiah New-
hall, Richard S. Fay, Otis Johnson, of Lynn, and Josiah
Lovett, of Beverly, who were very successful cultivators.

The grounds of Mr. Johnson were remarkable for

70 THE HORTICULTURE OF

the neatness with which they were kept, and we well
remember the remark the writer made when visiting
his place, “There is a weed,’ which seemed to trouble
him. Mr. Johnson was a zealous and enterprising
horticulturist, frequently bearing off the highest prizes
for his fruits. He was very successful in the culture
of small fruits, especially the strawberry. On a bed of
less than seven thousand feet of land he produced, of
Hovey’s Seedling, seven hundred quarts of fruit, being
equal to four thousand five hundred quarts to the acre.’
The foreign grapes were here grown with great success,
a regular diary of his process being published.

Among the most enterprising horticulturists of
Lynn, and those interested in the growth of fruits,
were the Breeds. In speaking of its progress, Mr.
Henry A. Breed, says, “ fifty-six years ago, there were
but four varieties of pears, and very few trees in Lynn,
and but few flowers, now there are upwards of forty-
five thousand pear trees, bearing almost every variety
of fruit, and a flower garden may be seen in almost
every man’s yard. I ‘built the first greenhouse, and
now there are upwards of fifty, and many of them are
quite large. I helped to set out the first shade trees
in streets; now almost every street has them on each
side. Since that time, I have graded thirty-four streets
at my own expense.” Mr. Breed still lives, at about
eighty-three years of age.

Coming nearer on the North Shore, among the
most remarkable instances of success were the efforts
of the late Frederic Tudor,? at Nahant. Mr. Tudor

1‘ Hovey’s Magazine,” XV., p. 411.
2Hon. M. P. WILpeEr: Nauant, Oct. 2d, 1863.
Dear Sir, —It is one of the misfortunes of a man any way distinguished
for anything which claims the admiration of his fellow-men, to be continually
teased and harrassed by the great mass of ignorant and stupid people, on the
subject for which he is noted.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. rg!

was called the “Ice King,” being the first to establish
that trade on an extensive scale in our commerce. Here
on this rough and rock-bound coast, over whose bold
promontory the dashing waves and surging spray con-
tinue still to beat, he commenced a large garden on a
spot without a tree or shrub upon it; 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 Louise Bonne of Jersey
pears, one of which measured over ten inches in cir-
cumference, 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 at-
tached to the pears of which we have spoken the fol-
lowing note: “The whole circumference of ten fruits

This must be my excuse for writing this note, and inviting your attention to
a small basket of fruit produced at this place.

What I would principally call your attention to is a fruit, a seedling, resem-
bling the Seckel, but produced from a tree growing entirely different from the
Seckel, and having thorns not worked. Also to three pears, which have this
year been produced from trees varying in age from twenty to sixty years. A
cluster of Brown Beurrés; of these I have three trees, which bore perfect
fruit for the first time in thirteen years, although every year they have pro-
duced fruit; all the previous years the fruit has been bad. ‘Two fruits of the
old St. Germain, so rare as almost to be forgotten. Of these I have a few
dozen, produced on an old free stock tree, which this year, for the first time
in a long course of years, has produced no good fruit.

Three fruits of the old St. Michael, or White Doyenneé, the product of old
trees which I brought here thirteen years ago, and which have every year pro-
duced fruit, but always crooked and spotted. This year there is a near ap-
proach to good specimens. A few specimens of my other fruit to fill the bas-
ket, although I am sending coals to Newcastle.

This has been a year of too redundant production, partly owing to the ab-
sence of production last year, and partly to the great quantity of rain we have
had during the summer.

It has been a year for producing large-sized fruit, but of low flavor. I hope
the Horticultural Society will appoint a competent person to write something
on the last season, and the cause of the restoration of the lost fruits, which I
suppose other gentlemen have experienced besides myself.

I am, very trul FREDERIC Tupor.
? ?

TZ THE HORTICULTURE OF

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.”

At Swampscott are the beautiful and extensive grounds
of the Hon. E. R. Mudge,’ and many other estates cele-
brated for their elegance and ornamental culture, and
we are glad to know that Mr. Mudge and other wealthy
gentlemen are constantly adding to the improvement
and adornment of their summer residences on the sea-side.

Going a little further inland to the west we find
Dedham, in former days noted for many fine resi-
dences, among which were those of Fisher Ames, the
distinguished orator, statesman, and moralist of his
day, and Edward Dowse, one of the first merchants
who opened the trade between the United States and
China. These gentlemen were much interested in hor-
ticulture, and planted some of the beautiful elms and
other trees which adorn her streets. They had orchards,
and gardens, and ice houses, which were considered as
rare luxuries in those days.

In 1793, Mr. Ames writes to Thomas Dwight: “TI
have just begun to display my taste as a gardener;”’ in
1794, “I have been to see Mr. Gore’s place; I do not
expect to build a smarter;”’ in 1795, “the time of my
men is so taken up by the masons, my garden is full of
weeds;” and again, “I am trying to raise new breeds
of potatoes from seed.” 1799, to Gov. Gore: “Do I
bore you on the subject of husbandry? Paine says,
Gen. Heath gets three thousand dollars a year by the
vegetables, &c., from his farm. I solicit the honor of
being appoimted to the post of privy counsellor, or sec-
retary of your cabbage and squash department.” And
again to Gore, same year: “Cider isdear. It is better
to look for our drink to our trees, than to our ploughs.”

1 Since writing the above, Mr. Mudge has deceased.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 7a

In 1802 he writes: “I have sought pleasure among
my trees.”

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 his daughter Mary, who now
reside there.

The example of Fisher Ames has been followed
by others who have been engaged in the promotion
of horticulture. Among these may be named Edward
M. Richards, Ebenezer Wight and Edward S. Rand, Jr.,
all of whom held the office of recording secretary of
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Dr. Wight
was one of the most eminent cultivators of the apple;
proving under his own observation, the numerous varie-
ties as they came to notice, and distributing scions of
the same to all applicants. Edward S. Rand, Senior,
promoted the advancement of horticulture by the
adornment of his beautiful estate; and his excellent
collection of greenhouse and orchid plants, of which we
have spoken before. His son Edward, whose grounds and
houses for the culture of fruits and flowers, his collec-
tion of orchids, and his contributions to our exhibitions,
were of a notable character. The efforts of Col.
Eliphalet Stone, for more than thirty years, in
promoting the culture of fruits, are still continued,
dispensing now, as ever, the results of his careful
experience for the benefit of the public. Dedham was
the home of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, whose
presidency, for the first twenty years, was vested in the
writer, and which greatly promoted by its exhibi-
tions the horticulture of our vicinity.

Turning to the South Shore for a hasty glance, we
find Braintree, including then what is now Quincy, was,

74 THE HORTICULTURE OF

from the first settlement of Boston, turned to use by
many of its citizens for farm and pasture-lands. In
due time, some of its wealthier owners, and more
enterprising occupants, introduced orchards and gar-
dens. 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 1656, at the age of 55, just after he had built a
house on what is now Mt. Wollaston. His son, of the
same name, who died in 1697, inherited the estate, and
planted an orchard, of which some apple trees still
remain. Judge Edmund Quincy, its next owner, a fine
lime tree of whose planting has come down to our
time, dying in London, the property came to his son,
Col. Josiah Quincy, who, about the year 1770, had
upon it gardens and orchards, with a rich collection of
French pears. 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
venerable age, devoted intervals during his public life,
and his retirement from it, to the care, adornment and
enrichment of the 350 acres which came to his posses-
sion. He was fond of natural beauty, and of agricul-
tural 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 anda
half of hedge.’ When President Quincy was in con-
gress, in 1809, he obtained from an English gardener,

1 Miss Eliza S. Quincy’s letter.

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 75
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 in-
terest 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 request
of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.
In 1849 and 1852, it was revised by Mr. Quincy, and
was republished in the Transactions of the Norfolk
Agricultural Society, of which he was a member, and
reprinted again in 1860, in Flint’s State Agricultural
Report. Mr. Quincy was fond of every improvement,
and had one of the first mowmg machines introduced
into New England. He passed the last summer of
his life on his farm, where he died, July 1, 1864, in
his 95d year, in the house and apartment of his grand-
father, Col. Josiah Quincy, leaving to his daughter,
Miss Eliza 8. Quincy, and two of her sisters, life estates
in his house and grounds around it, where they now
reside. To his eldest son, the present Hon. Josiah
Quincy, ex-president of the Massachusetts senate, and
ex-mayor of Boston, he bequeathed his farm with a
house erected in 1850, who also carried it on for a few
years, and where, in 1881, he resides in a green old
age, with his children and grandchildren around him.

76 THE HORTICULTURE OF

In Braintree, was the residence of Benjamin V.
French, a vice-president of the Massachusetts Horti-
cultural Society, eminent for his devotion to horticul-
ture and agricultural pursuits. His collection of fruits
embraced most of the varieties which gave promise of
being good, especially of the apple, of which he had one
of the most extensive collections in New England, and
for the encouragement and culture of this fruit he left a
bequest which amounted, in time, to the sum of about
twenty-five hundred dollars, the annual income of which
was to be appropriated for this purpose. This fund was
established originally by the members of the Massachu-
setts Agricultural Club, and other friends, and was to
revert to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society after
the decease of Mr. French and his wife ; which have both
already taken place. Mr. French was much interested
in the improvement of rural cemeteries, especially of
Mount Auburn, which from the first, he was one of its
earliest friends and promoters.

Hingham was much interested in the cultivation of
the soil and the improvement of fruits, a hundred
years ago. Among her farmers was Benjamin Lincoln,
the father of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, himself a farmer,
who under the favor of Washington had the honor of
receiving the surrender of the British army at York-
town a hundred years ago,—an event which has just
been celebrated with great display and manifesta-
tions of public rejoicing. arly in this century the
Herseys and Burrs had nurseries, and did much for
horticulture; but to no one of her sons is she so
much indebted for progress in terraculture as to the
late Albert Fearing, president and founder of its
Agricultural Society, and donor of the Agricultural
Hall and the Free Library Hall. Much attention has
been given to planting of shade trees on the streets,

BOSTON AND VICINITY. Ti

and almost every house has its garden of fruits and
flowers. Its beautiful cemetery, for which Dr. R. I. P.
Fiske did so much in ornamental culture, is still further
improved by Mr. Todd. Here rest the remains of John
Albion Andrew, the “war Governor” and friend of
human freedom. Nor would we forget that Hingham
is still the home of the venerable Solomon Lincoln,
the historian, and of our beloved and accomplished
chief magistrate, Gov. John Davis Long.

A history of our horticulture would be considered as
deficient without some notice of the literature which
has been connected with it, and as-agriculture is the
mother of horticulture it is natural that its publications
should precede it. The first work of the kind published
in our State was the New England Farmer or Georgical
Dictionary, by Dr. Samuel Deane, in 1790. Then
came the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, 1793;
the American Gardener, by Thomas Green Fessenden,
in 1822; a Treatise on the Cultivation of Flowers, by
Roland Greene, in 1828; and the Book of Fruits,
by Robert Manning, in 1838. Subsequent to these,
several other works on horticulture and agriculture, as
well as magazines and the reports of societies of other
States and from foreign lands were accessible to those
who sought for them. Among these may be named
the Transactions of the Philadelphia and Massachu-
setts Societies for Promoting Agriculture; Thacher’s
American Orchardist, of 1821; The New England
Farmer, by Thomas Green Fessenden, in 1822;
The New American Orchardist, by William Kenrick ;
The Massachusetts Ploughman; The Boston Cultiva-
tor. But it was not until the establishment of the
Amer.can Gardener’s Magazine, P. B. Hovey and
Charles M. Hovey, editors, in 1835, that a regular
publication on Horticulture was published in New Eng-

78 THE HORTICULTURE OF

land. Of this there were thirty-four volumes issued.
Mr. C. M. Hovey published his Fruits of America
in two elegant volumes. At the same time came the
Horticultural Register, by Joseph Breck, and his popular
Book on Flowers, and Tilton’s Journal of Horticulture,
Robert Manning, editor. To these may be added a
Treatise on the Culture of the Grape, by John Fisk
Allen; the American Fruit Book, by Samuel W. Cole;
the Culture of the Grape, by William C. Strong, and the
annual reports and publications. of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, with its extensive and magnifi-
cent library, which is acknowledged by all to be one
of the best horticultural libraries in the world. And
in this connection we should also record the fact
that Horticultural Hall has no equal in elegance and
convenience within our knowledge; and to crown all,
we have the History of the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society for its first half century, embodying
much of the history and progress to which we have
alluded.

Nor can we close this chapter without recognizing
with gratitude the efforts of the men who laid the
foundations of the Massachusetts Society for Promot-
ing Agriculture, of the American Pomological Society,
and particularly of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, and especially the labors of John B. Russell,
the only survivor of those mentioned in the act of
incorporation, who also established the first general
seed store in Boston more than fifty years ago, and
has devoted a long life to the promotion of horticul-.
tural science.

Nor would we refrain from noticing the influence
which was, primarily, here created by the efforts of
our first settlers in promoting the higher branches of
terraculture, and which has now been extended

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 79

wherever the foot of civilization has been planted on
our continent.

Some reference should also be made to the amazing
progress, within the age of some who still survive, of
agriculture, of which horticulture and rural art are
only parts. Nor would it be generous or truthful
did we fail to record the fact that much of this on-
ward march may be primarily traced to Boston and
its vicinity. And this is not the result of chance. It
is the natural result arising from the teachings of such
pioneers as I have alluded to, in the founding of insti-
tutions like the Massachusetts Society for Promoting
Agriculture, the Horticultural Society, the American
Pomological Society, and other kindred associations.
How astonishing the progress in our own day! It is
not a hundred years since the first Agricultural society
was formed on this continent. It is little more than
fifty years since the first Horticultural society was
established in our Jand. Now these societies are scat-
tered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Dominion
to the Gulf of Mexico, numbering nearly two thousand
kindred institutions, all actively engaged in promoting
the cultivation of the soil, and in the enrichment of its
products.

Fifty years ago the products of our soil were scarcely
thought worthy of a place in the statistics of our coun-
try. Now our exports of these amount to nearly six
hundred millions of dollars annually, and our western
granaries are treasure houses upon which the world may
draw to supply deficiencies elsewhere. ‘Then the supply
of fruits in our market, excepting apples, was limited
to a few varieties and to a few weeks of use. Now our
markets abound with fruits for all seasons of the year.
Then almost the only strawberry in our market was the
wild strawberry of the field, and that limited to a short

80 THE HORTICULTURE OF

season. Now we have in variety these delicious fruits, by
the facilities of transportation, for two or three months,
receiving from the South in a single day five thousand
bushels, and from the single city of Norfolk, in Virginia,
sixteen thousand bushels, and from our own town of
Dighton ten thousand bushels in a year. Then not
a single hybridized fruit of the strawberry had been
produced, so far as we know, in our land; now so great
has been the increase in this period that my register
contains the names of nearly four hundred kinds of
strawberries that have been under cultivation in my
day. Then there were no American grapes cultivated
in our gardens except here and there a vine of the Ca-
tawba and Isabella ; now there are more than two hun-
dred varieties of American grapes in cultivation, and
grapes may be had from our shops during more than
half of the year; and so extensive are our vineyards
that, in addition to the production of the grape for
the table, California alone produces ten millions of
gallons of wine, of which large quantities have been
exported to Europe, South America and Mexico, some
of which is mulled over and returned for consumption.

Then the cultivation of the pear was limited to a few
varieties, since which the gardens of Manning, Hovey,
the writer and others have embraced more than eight
hundred varieties of this noble fruit. Then no exports
of fruit of any note had been made. Now, Boston
alone has shipped over six hundred thousand barrels of
apples in a year, and the export of fruit from this
country has amounted to nearly three millions of dol-
lars in a year.

Did space permit, we should allude to the wonderful
exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural, the
American Pomological, and other societies. Nor can
we omit to mention the grand improvement in orna-

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 81

mental culture which has taken place in our own vicinity
during this period. Then we had no such splendid
villas and grounds as. Messrs. Hunnewell’s, Payson’s,
Sargent’s, Gray’s, Hayes’s and others, which are such
an honor to our Commonwealth and country.

We should also record the fact, in connection with
the history of horticulture, that although we live in
a comparatively cold and uncongenial clime, and labor
under great disadvantages, yet the enterprise, energy,
and perseverance of our cultivators, has more than coun-
terbalanced all obstacles, and compels our reluctant soils
to yield rich rewards for our toil. Horticulture as an
art is carried to as high a state of perfection here as in
any other part of our country, and we delight to repeat
this sentiment, so happily expressed by our poet Holmes:

‘* So on our rude and wintry soil
We feed the kindling flame of art,

And steal the tropics’ blushing spoil
To bloom on Nature’s icy heart.”

Another strong evidence of improved taste is the
establishment and adornment of our Cemeteries.
Mount Auburn at Cambridge, Forest Hills at Roxbury,
and Woodlawn at Chelsea, are happy illustrations of
refined taste and culture. The neglected and gloomy
resting-places of the dead, which once cast horror and
terror on the minds of children, and even those of
older years, are fast giving way to the shady retreats
and sylvan scenes of the garden and forest. Where
formerly only decaying grass, tangled weeds, and moss-
covered tablets were generally to be seen, may now be
witnessed beautiful sites, natural scenery, and embel-
lished lots, that awaken sensations which no language
can describe,—where the meandering path leads
to the spot in which rest the remains of the loved
and lost,— where the rustling pine mournfully sighs

82 THE HORTICULTURE OF

in the passing breeze, the willow weeps in respon-
sive grief, and where the evergreen, breathing in
perennial life, is a fit emblem of those celestial fields
where the leaf shall never wither, and the flower
never fade.

The general use of flowers, from the cradle to the
grave, affords striking proofs of a high state of civil-
zation and refinement. Within our own recollection,
the use of flowers at funerals or in the sanctuary was
deemed improper with the sanctity of divine worship.

These have been too often considered as the mere
superfluities of life, but the more we are brought into
communion with them, the more will our souls be in-
spired with gratitude to Him who clothes the fields
with floral gems scarcely less brilliant than the glitter-
ing host above. Nor can we too highly appreciate
that wisdom and benevolence which surrounds us with
these beautiful manifestations of perfection and glory,

‘* Mingled and made by love to one great end.”

But horticulture includes more than the finest fruits
or flowers, or the neatest and most skilful cultivation.

From the time of the heathen mythologists, and the
wise King Solomon when “he made orchards and gar-
dens, and planted all kinds of fruits,” the praises of the
garden have been perpetuated through all ages.
From scenes in the garden, from Eden to Geth-
semane, have been drawn the most exalted and
sublime conceptions, the most sacred and divine
communings that have ever moved the heart of
man —the garden where man may commune with its
Maker and admire the beauty and glory of His works.
“The garden,” says Lord Bacon, “is the purest of
human pleasures, and the greatest refreshment to the
spirit of man, without which buildings and palaces are

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 83
but gross handiworks.” “No one,” said Daniel Web-
ster, “is too polished to see its beauty, nothing too
refined to be capable of its enjoyment. It is a con->
stant field where taste and refinement may find oppor-
tunity for gratification.” Said Mr. Winthrop: “ Horti-
culture is in its most comprehensive sense, one of the
fine arts of common life. It distributes its productions
with equal hand to the rich and the poor. It decorates
the dwelling of the humblest laborer with undoubted
originals by the oldest masters, and places within his
daily view fruit pieces such as Van Huysum never
painted, and landscapes such as Poussin could only
copy.”

So thought Cyrus when he boasted of having planted
his trees with his own hands; so Maximillian, “If you
could see the fruits I cultivate with my own hand, you
would not talk to me of empire.” And so thought our
own Pickering, Lowell, Colman, Dearborn, Downing,
and others of our own time, who have retired from the
scenes of city life that they might enjoy the rich gifts
which bounteous nature bestows on the culture of the
soil.

Thus we have, as briefly as possible, traced the his-
tory and progress of the horticulture of Boston and
its vicinity for the last two hundred and fifty years,
from the time when William Blaxton planted his
orchard on our Capitoline Hill, —from the time when
Endicott, Winthrop, and the colonists of Massachusetts
Bay brought with them the seeds and stones from
which, primarily, arose the taste for fine fruits, beauti-
ful flowers, and the ornamental culture which has made
our region so distinguished in the annals of terracul-
ture. Slowly, but positively, has this taste been
gradually improving, until Boston and its vicinity
have become beautiful and eminent for horticultural

84 THE HORTICULTURE OF

progress, a progress which has been for the last fifty
years wonderful. Fruits which were then, at the be-
ginning of the present century considered as good,
have no place in our gardens or in our catalogues
now. Well do we remember the time when there
was no other strawberry or native grape except the
wild varieties, not a Black Tartartan nor Downer
cherry, not a Bartlett, Duchesse d’Angouleme, or
Beurré d’Anjou pear, not a forced fruit or flower
from the hot-house for sale in our market, and not
a shop for the sale of flowers in our city. And
although we may regret the loss of the numerous fine
gardens which once graced our city, sparkling like gems
on the breast of beauty, we are more than compen-
sated for the loss by the wide-spread interest which
now pervades our land, and furnishes us daily with
fruits and flowers fit to grace the table of a king.

Our fine gardens have been supplanted by temples
of commerce, manufactures, science, literature, and
religion. But however great the fame of old Boston
may be for her benevolent institutions, however re-
nowned she may become for other attainments, we
believe she will be gratefully remembered for her lead
in the science of the soil, and that, through all coming
time, the history of Boston horticulture will be fragrant
with the memories of the past, and we fondly hope
that —

‘¢ The scent of the roses will hang round it still.”

In the beauty and often gorgeous array of flowers,
we have presented to us the striking and sublimely
impressive fact that there is more of richness and
variety in these growths, with no utilitarian purpose
except to minister to delight, than in all the so-called
products of Nature. It is as if its Great Author and

BOSTON AND VICINITY. 85

Designer proclaimed to us, that after the use of all the
original elements, for every need of man and beast, —
for sustenance, clothing and shelter, — there was a rich
surplus to be turned to the gentle and loving service
of refining tastes and innocent joys.

H34

85

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