June 28th Sat Have been to Boston to day met Alson
& wife at the depot Went into the horticultural
exhibition Saw many fine roses and […]
quite a variety of other flowers a very fine
dish of peaches and beautiful bunches of grapes
Henrietta & I dined at Mr Orrs. We walked
a great deal went into Hanover St Whites bonnet
rooms & Mellons Merchants Row
Evelina traveled into Boston today and met her brother Alson and his wife Henrietta. She may have ridden in with Oakes, who usually went to Boston on business on Saturdays. If he was present, however, he didn’t spend the day with her; he would have had his customers to meet. She, on the other hand, along with Alson and Henrietta, attended a horticultural exhibition. They saw plantings and all sorts of flowers, including “fine roses,” and displays of fruit that were also “very fine.”
It’s possible that this particular exhibition was that year’s annual presentation by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Established in 1829, and going strong today, the society, then as now, offered lectures and presented an annual exhibition in order to further their mission to educate the public about “the science and practice of horticulture.”
After midday dinner at the home of friends, Robert and Melinda Orr, Evelina and Henrietta walked around the city. They looked into the shops along Hanover Street and Merchants Row, the latter a street that bisected Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. The two women window-shopped for bonnets at White’s store and, given the horticultural theme of the day, they may have poked their heads in Joseph Breck’s floral emporium, too. They had much to think about on their ride back to Easton that evening.
evelinaames 
If my recollections are correct, at this time they take the train in to Boston from the depot in one of the Bridgewaters, maybe N. Bridgewater, now Brockton. I remember that only because I noted that they did NOT go down to Stoughton to take the train from there. By 1855, they will be able to take “the cars” from Easton.