V 
 
 
THE 
 
 HORTICULTURE 
 
 BOSTON AND VICINITY, 
 
 MARSHALL P. WILDER 
 
 
 TOLMAN & WHTTE, PRINTERS, 383 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 
 1881. 
 
THE HORTICULTURE 
 
 Boston and Vicinity, 
 
 MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, 
 
 Pbestoent of tue Xew E>-(ii.ANn Historic GENE^\.LO(:irAL 
 Society, Bokton. 
 
 SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE CHAPTER PREPARED FOR THE 
 BOSTON MEMORIAL SERIES, VOL. IV. 
 
 :PR,IVA.TEL,"5r r>RIIS7TEr3. 
 
 ^c<ofco/^^ 
 
 1882 
 
 TOLMAN & WHITE, PRINTERS, 3R'. WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 
 
 1881. 
 

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 '/^ir7i<iSi>C^ 
 
 /> 
 
 /^'^y(^ 
 
 y^:^ £^V 
 
 WITH THE RESPECTS OF 
 
 _ Z^ ^^ 
 
 
THE HORTICULTUUE OF BOSTON AND VIClNTrY.^ 
 
 By MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDEE, Ph. D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 "Hail, Horticulture! Heaven-ordainctl, 
 
 Of every art the source, 
 Which man has polished, life sustained, 
 
 Since tiftie commenced his course. 
 Where waves thy wonder-working waml, 
 
 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— embraced not only the city but its 
 surroundingjs. 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 
 
 ^ Prepared for the Boston Memorial Series, Volume IV. 
 
4 THE nORTICULTUKE 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 
 ofVinland, 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 a damson ; 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. 
 
 1 Young's Chronicle of the Pilgrims, p. 234. 
 
 2 Boston Memorial, Vol. I., p. 84. 
 
BOSTON AND YICINITY. O 
 
 near Charles Street, being a portion of tlie six acres 
 reserved from the fifty acres which he sold to the 
 inhabitants of Shawmut, and from which he removed 
 in 1634 to what is now Lonsdale, Rhode Island, w4iere 
 may still be seen, near his favorite resort, " Study Hill," 
 remains of trees planted by him, and from which were 
 disseminated apples, now nnder 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 tiie foot of School street, his house 
 beincr 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 w^ine. 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. ^ 
 
 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 oT 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. 7 
 
 size and culture of fruits knd vegetables growing in 
 Eoxbury 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 might}' 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 j-ear I am credibh' informed, the}' 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. I have seen a fine Pearmain, at a Foot from the Ground, 
 measure ten Feet and four inches round. This Tree, in one Year, 
 has borne thirtj'-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 fort}' 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 1643, 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. I have 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 HORTICULTUEE 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 J^now 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 Sewallin 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 in 
 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 hio^hest 
 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 Waj^te'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 lony; 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 Gov. James Sullivan, afterwards of Wil- 
 liam Gray, Joseph Barrell, Benjamin Bussej^, Nathaniel 
 Goddard, Henry Hill, and David Ellis, father of Rev. 
 Dr. George E. Ellis, whose gardens were stipplied 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. 
 
 Per'rin 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 fertilizhig 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 1730 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 
 Connnonwealth of Massachusetts : 
 
 " To be sold b^' 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 varietj' of fruit, 
 among which were scA'eral immense mulberry trees." — Drake's Old 
 Landmarks of Boston, p. 339, 340. 
 
 1 See Boston Memorial, Vol. II., p. xlvi. 
 
BOSTON" AND VICINITY. 11 
 
 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 
 Mlss 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 stiM 
 
 * Boston Memorial. Vol. II., pp. xi, 52G. 
 
 1 Old Landmarks of Boston, page 166 and 167. 
 
 2 Letter of Edmund J. Baker. 
 
12 THE HOETICULTUEE OF 
 
 standing the house built b}' 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 
 Kev. 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 court3'ard ornamented by flowers and shrubs was 
 divided into upper and lower plats. The terraces which rose from 
 the paved court were supported b}" massive walls of granite, and a 
 grasshopper glittered on the summer-house, which commanded a 
 view only second to Beacon hill." — Drake's Old LandmarTcs, 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. II., pp. 259, 523, and the view in Vol. IV. 
 
BOSTOX AND VICINITY. 13 
 
 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 jDlums 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 had a large house and an extensive lot 
 of land on Beacon street at the corner of Bowdoin 
 street, reaching quite over the hill to what is now 
 Ashburton Place. 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. Eobert 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. 
 
14 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. W^inthrop 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 Tankervillece), 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. Band, 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 -Societj^, 
 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 nOKTICULTQRE OF 
 
 streets, where the building of the Massachusetts Chari- 
 table Mechanics' Association now stands; and the 
 Eowe 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 : 
 
 " On 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. LoA'd, Gardiner Greene and Gov. 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 
 onl}' remaining classical hill, the Copps, will be preserved for all 
 time. On Summer street was the garden of William Gra}', who 
 defined ' enough' as ' a little more ;' that of Benjamin Bussej-, 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. Jo}', 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 ver}' much 
 altered from what it was at the date of m^' memorandum. In my 
 opinion it was a much pleasanfer 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 3-011 will continue to enjoy j-our fondness for horticulture, 
 flowers, etc., for manj" ^-ears. 
 
 I remain A'our friend and servant, 
 
 Geo. W. Lymak." 
 
 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 ucay 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 
 
 ^ Mr. Wilder's Address at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Massa- 
 chusetts Horticultural Society, September, 1879. ■ 
 
18 THE HORTICULTUEE 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 w ere 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 1839, 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. 
 
BOSTOX AXD VICINITY. 19 
 
 This was a place of great attraction for 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 : 
 
 " The Conservatory. — We advise our friends who are as usual 
 seeking amusement during the Christmas holida^-s, not to omit look- 
 ing in at the Public Conservator}'. 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 twent}^ full grown trees, ten to thirty years old. 
 It is well known that the former possessor of this superb collection 
 of Camellias, IMarshall 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 pecuniar}' sacrifice to himself, 
 was the desire that his fellow-citizens might conveuiently and fre- 
 quently enjo}' the pleasure of viewing it. It is calculated that 
 during the next five or six weeks j several thousand Camellia 
 blossoms will expand, hundreds are nowiu full bloom, and contrast 
 beautifully with the dark glossj' fohage. Several of the Acacia 
 tribe, the pride of the Flora of New South Wales, are likewise in 
 beaut}', as is also the fine Poinsettia pulcherrima, named in compli- 
 ment to our minister in Mexico, Mr. Poinsetl, 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 2)lants 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, altliough 
 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, containing 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 delightr 
 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 JOPIN CADNESS, 
 Now LIVING IN Flushing, New York. 
 
 I was engaged by Dr. Boot, of London, through Dr. John Lind- 
 \ey, Secretary- of the London Horticultural Society's Gardens at 
 Chiswiek. 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. 21 
 
 I found a large, and at that time a verv fine collection of plants, 
 especially' Camellias, among which were some of the largest plants 
 in the countrj', notabl}' Alba 2)lenas^ one of which was said to have 
 been raised from a cutting b}' 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, Flo^'i, 
 Hume's blush, Duchesse d' Orleans, Donklaerii, with man}' French 
 varieties, and all imported plants. Among other greenhouse plants 
 manj' of the most showj' new Holland plants, then in fashion ; some 
 varieties of Chinese Azaleas, Ericas, and a varietj' of tropical plants, 
 as Strelitzias, Sago Palm, Bananas, Hibiscus, Eugenias, (Rose ap- 
 ple) and a large collection of Cape bulbs and Amar3'llis, Pelargoni- 
 ums, many of Beck's and Cock's (of Loudon) 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 verj- large struc- 
 ture and had an imposing appearance but was in a bad position, 
 being exposed to the cold winds of the Back Ba}', 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 Conservator}', 
 of which were some rare speciinens. 
 
 The gardens w^ere 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, 
 shrubber}', 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 w^hich 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 SIOOO, 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 au}' 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 Conservator}' 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 
 durino; the sieo-e of Boston. Of the age of the Great Elm 
 we cannot speak positively. It has been known as far 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 23 
 
 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 tlie 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 no more. 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 waiter was re- 
 quested to solicit from the Mayor a section 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 HOKTICULTUKE 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 tlie 
 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 
 
 ^ Transactions for the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 
 ture, New Series, Vol. 1st, page 28th. 
 
 ' History of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, page 40. 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 25 
 
 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. 
 B. Emerson and others, trustees, with authority to appro- 
 priate the same for such a 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 i^roperty 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 ornaiiiental 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 "Bussej' Institu- 
 tion." — Thomas Motley's Letter. 
 
26 THE HOKTICULTURE 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 
 
 1 Letter of Thomas Motley. 
 
 ^Dr. Harris was a lover of fine fruit, and once said to the writer, " Your 
 exhibition of pears is grand ; but there is one variety that I miss, — the Bon 
 Chretien (the good Christian). I sliall 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 turnpike road, where he successfully grew 
 several kinds of foreign grapes, apricots, peaches, and 
 pears. Among the grapes was a white variety, named 
 Horatio, after Mr. Horatio Sprague. Consul at Gibraltar, 
 from whom he received it, — known now as the Nice 
 grape. 
 
 Mr. Newhall was a distinguished cultivator, and the 
 first treasurer of the Massachusetts Horticultural 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- 
 
 * The 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 
 
 tiiral 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, man}^ 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 YICINITY. 29 
 
 treasurer of the Horticultural Society, was, aud 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 vear 1839, the entire collection of o-reen- 
 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, W'hich 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 1813, Col. Matlock, a gentleman 
 he met there, gave him some scions from the original 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 31 
 
 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 marriao-e, 
 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. 
 
 ^Letter 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 preHm.inary 
 meeting which eventuated in the establishment of the 
 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 
 
 Mr. Lowell received scions of fruit trees from Mr. 
 Kniffht, 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 regiiia, 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. S. 
 Dearborn, who will ever be gratefully remembered as 
 the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural 
 Society. He was also a great leader in the establish- 
 ment of the Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the founder 
 of Forest Hills Cemetery. Li 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. ' 33 
 
 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 
 Barrel], 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- 
 
 ^ Letter of Allen Putnam. 
 
34 THE HORTICULTURE OF 
 
 nut avenue. This was the home of Aaron Davis 
 WilUams, 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 waiter has received 
 the following letter : 
 
 Boston, May 10, 1881. 
 Hon. Marshall P. AVildek : Dear Sir, — Your favor of yesterday was re- 
 ceived this morning. The house on Walnut avenue, in the Eoxbury 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 on the rear. It was 
 inherited by my father, John D. 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 Eoxbury to be remembered 
 was that of Rufus G. Amory, with its long avenues, 
 entering from Washington street, bordered with noble 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 35 
 
 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, w^as 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 nORTICULTUEE 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 thje tea 
 into the harbor.^ 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- 
 fiscated. Gov. Increase Sumner was afterwards the 
 owner, then Beza Tucker, and in 1824 it passed to Mr. 
 Lemisi* 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 
 fiower 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. 343. 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 37 
 
 were situated in Roxbury, opposite the estate of Gov. 
 Eiistis. 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 Parkmcmii, 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 flimous 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 
 Beurre d'Anjou, generally considered "the best." 
 Nor would we omit the residence of Col. Henry S. 
 Russell, in olden time of Francis Amory, novv the 
 
38 THE HOKTICULTUKE 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, preeminent in the little cordon of towns 
 which have so long constituted the exquisite envi- 
 rons of Boston, embossing it with rich and varied mar- 
 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, SuUi- 
 vans, Sargents, Lees, Gardners, Tappans, of Gen. Theo- 
 dore Lyman, Benjamin Guild, Nathaniel IngersoU Bow- 
 ditch, John E. Thayer, and others, who have been 
 patrons of horticultural improvement ; and although 
 the citizens of Brookline protested in 1773 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. Ed- 
 
 1 Mr. Winthrop's Address at the dedication of the new Toivn 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 annuall}^ 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 130 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 Sara, 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. 41 
 
 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 Ehn in Brookline, 
 standino; near the ancient house belono-ino: 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 is one of great interest for 
 the study of landscape and ornamental culture. 
 
 General Lyman, to whom 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 Beurre, Mr. Gardner says : " I 
 have never seen finer specimens." 
 
 No doubt good gardens were early made at Muddy 
 Brook Avhen 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 nOKTICULTUEE 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 forermmers 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 w\all, 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, Avith 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 1730, 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 3^ears 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 
 
46 THE HORTICULTURE 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 hnn 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 fiuits, 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 
 commenced 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 OP 
 
 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, cheny, 
 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 1823 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 HiU 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. 
 
BOSTOlSr AND VICINITY. 49 
 
 own grounds and other land which he had taken up in 
 the South. 
 
 James Hyde established a small nurseiy 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 Societj'^, 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 HOETICULTURE OP 
 
 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. Ahhy 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, and has 
 a very wide circulation. 
 
 The nurseries and plant-houses of William C. Strong, 
 ex-president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 
 are worthy of special notice for the enterprise and 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 Araory, 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. 51 
 
 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 hirge 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, w^ith 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, piitch 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 countrj^, but of 
 all such, from California, Japan, and other lands, that 
 would endure our climate. His collection of rhododen- 
 
52 THE HORTICULTURE OF 
 
 (Irons 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 Europe 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 jDlants. The avenues to this estate are planted 
 on either side Avith 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 Ave are on 
 the Lake of Como." Here are fruit and vegetable 
 gardens enclosed wdth ornamental hedges ; a conserva- 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 53 
 
 iory 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 botanv 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 Rido:e 
 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 nORTICULTUEE OF 
 
 AVatertown 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 Gushing, 
 now the home of Samuel R. Pa3^son, 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 1830, in a few years to Mr. Gushing, and, after 
 his death, about 1860, to Mr. Payson. 
 
 Mr. Gushing 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 HORTICULTUKE 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 carC, he brought forth some of the finest 
 fruits that have been on exhibition. Before his removal 
 from Boston, his love of flowers led him to establish a 
 small garden on Tremont street, north of the Masonic 
 Temple, where, forty years ago, he cultivated the dahlia 
 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 gift 
 and o;ave 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 library, 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 strictly on an English model. The 
 estate comprised several hundred acres, in the middle 
 of which was w^hat 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 XVI. ; the other rooms 
 with substantial rich mahoganj^ 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 ifields 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 
 
 ^ Letter of Col. Henry Lee. 
 
58 THE HORTICULTURE OF 
 
 the hands of WilHam Payne, then to Gen. Theodore Ly- 
 man, and on the latter's removal to Brookline, to Copley 
 Greene. Now it is a 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 held 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 93 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, Avas 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 AIs^D VICINITY. 59 
 
 a healthful condition." "The peculiar thing," saj^s 
 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 
 
 1 Letters 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 Water town. 
 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 
 jj-arden 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 
 
 1 Mr. 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 Avith 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 Eoxbury, and exhibited 
 at the rooms of the Horticultural Society the Horatio 
 or Nice grape, weighing over six pounds to the bunch. 
 Mr. Royall died in 1739, leaving the property to his 
 son Isaac, and by the name of Royall it is still known. 
 There were many fine 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- 
 
 1 Old 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 : * 
 
 WoBURN, Sept. 28, 1880. 
 Mr. Woodman: Dear Sir, — Your note of the 2Gth inst. was received, 
 asking me to give you the account my grandfather, Samuel Tliompson, Esq., 
 gave me of the Baldwin apple. In rei)ly 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 thb old bird. The tree stood in Wilmington, near Butters Row 
 Road. 
 
 LEONARD THOMPSON, 
 
 92 years, 4 months. 
 
 Of the Baldwin apple, Deacon Thgmas Griggs, of 
 Brookline, now in his ninety-fourth year, whites :■ 
 "^ Seventy years ago I employed a man by the name of 
 Tufts, to graft. He came from Woljurn and brought 
 scions called the Pecker apple. He said Mr. Baldwin, 
 w^hen surveying for the canal, found a tree on the edge 
 of the wood which w^as 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. 375-77. 
 
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 her 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. Hiyes, at Lex- 
 ington, president of the Massachusetts Horticultural 
 Society. It is only nineteen years since he j3urchased 
 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 nORTICULTURE 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 nearly 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 Hampsliire, 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 
 
BOSTOX AXD YICINITT. 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 has a grapery, 
 a rosary, and large wnnter pits for the preservation of 
 half hardj^ 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. Tlie 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 HORTICULTUEE 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 longe 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 eleii-ant and deliorhtful 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 Corne, 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 cebbrated 
 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. II, p. ()31. 
 
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 
 rer/ia, some of whose leaves were four fe^t in diameter, 
 and would sustain a boy of six years of age. Its gorgeous 
 flowers were of corresponding proportions, colored 
 illustrations of whicn 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 HORTICULTQEE OF 
 
 sixth president of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 
 ciety, were distinguishe^l 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 
 paeony, 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 ofhce 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 3^ears, 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 horticultuial 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 
 ior 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 groAvth 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. 
 
 = HoN. M. P. Wilder: Nahant, Oct. 2d, 18G3. 
 
 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. 71 
 
 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 
 
 Tliis 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 Beurres ; 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 Doyenne, 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 truly, Frederic Tui>ok. 
 
72 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: "I 
 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. 1 solicit the honor of 
 being appointed to the post of privy counsellor, or sec- 
 retary of your cabbage and squash department." And 
 again to Gore, same year : " Cider is dear. It is better 
 to look for our drink to our trees, than to our ploughs." 
 
 3 Since writing the above, Mr. Mudge has deceased. 
 
BOSTON AND VICINITY. 73 
 
 In 1802 he writes : " I have sought pleasure among 
 my trees." 
 
 The estate of Mr. Dowse, by the wall of his wddow^, 
 became the property of her nepheAV, 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. Amongj these mav 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 ^nd 
 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 thirt}'- 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, Avas, 
 
74 THE HORTICULTUKE 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 1G36, at the age of 33, 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 and a 
 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-thom {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 Eadicans, 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 wdiicli 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 mowing machines introduced 
 into New England. He passed the last summer of 
 his life on his farm, where he died, July 1, 1864, in 
 his 93d year, in the house and apartment of his grand- 
 father. Col. Josiah Quincy, leaving to his daughter. 
 Miss Eliza S. 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 wdth a 
 house erected in 1850, who also carried it on for a few 
 years, and where, in 1881, he resides in a green old 
 ao;e, with his children and grandchildren aroimd Inm. 
 
76 THE HORTICULTURE OF 
 
 In Braintree, was tlie 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. 
 
 Hino-liam was much interested in the cultivation of 
 
 o 
 
 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. Early 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 
 Airricultural Society, and donor of the Ao-ricultural 
 Hall and the Free Library Hall. Much attention has 
 been given to planting of shade trees on the streets, 
 
BOSTON AN^D VICINITY. 77 
 
 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 Hino-ham 
 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 Eno-land Farmer or Geor^-ical 
 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 
 American 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 HOETICULTUKE OF 
 
 land. Of this there were thirtj-four vohimes issued. 
 Mr. C. M. Hovey pubhshed 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 Societj^ for Promotr 
 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 efl'orts of 
 our first settlers in promoting the higher branches of 
 terraculture, and w^hich 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 arisino- from the teachino;s 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 land. 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 facihties 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 ray 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 eio-ht 
 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, Pajson'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 wintrj' 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 civili- 
 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 jappreciate 
 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 beautj^, 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 Huj^sum 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, 3^ou 
 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 CapitoHne 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 Tartarian nor Downer 
 cherry, not a Bartlett, Duchesse d'Angouleme, or 
 Beurre 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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 ^^ JAN 85 
 
 ISS^ N. MANCHESTER, 
 ^^^^ INDIANA 46962 
 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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