96 Rhodora [JUNE 
ful association. Our meetings were held in Amherst, South Hadley, 
Hanover, N. H., and elsewhere, and in all places college officers, 
students, and the best people of the neighborhood who cared for our 
subject attended them. Dr. Gray came to our sixth meeting, which 
was held at the Seminary, and brought specimens of Gloriosa, which 
he made the theme of a pleasant and instructive talk. He spoke also 
of the fertilization of Apios tuberosa. President Clark of Amherst 
was the delight and pride of our local membership, — what a talker 
he was!— and he always came with his large botanical box full of 
choice specimens. Those happy times! Nothing less than our com- 
plete record can tell of them adequately, but I will give you a few of 
the best-known names from our list of signatures: C. H. Hitchcock 
of Dartmouth and his brother Edward of Amherst, William S. Clark 
of Amherst Agricultural College, Edward Tuckerman, D. P. Penhallow, 
a young man then, who has made a name for himself since; A. P. 
Morgan and his wife, Laura V. Morgan, both ardent students of fungi, 
and that, in 1873, was to be far ahead of the times; J. G. Scott of the 
Westfield Normal School, William Penn Brooks, who has also become 
widely known, and Warren Upham, then at Dartmouth ; Mr. CK. 
Pringle, the well-known collector, said he would come and authorized 
us to sign his name, but something prevented his attendance after all ; 
Dr. Gray added his name to the list, — the only ceremony required 
for membership; we had no fees. 
The members were so far apart that we had but two meetings a 
year and later only one; and though that diminished to none, I feel 
that the Society never died, though it slept. Some of its members died, 
however, and some moved far away. Botanists became more numerous 
in the Valley so that nobody was lonesome. We had a flourishing 
society in Springfield while the Valley Society was still holding its meet- 
ings, so these and some other causes led to the rest in its action which 
has not yet been broken. 
I ought to say something about the members utterly unknown to 
fame, who were drawn out by the association, — people from little 
country towns, women and men both, hard workers in bread-winning 
occupations, who yet managed to find time for their beloved science 
and made progress in it. They were born botanists, and that is the 
only way you can account for such things. It is a long story, but I felt 
called upon to say something for the dear old Society and could not 
well say it in fewer words. 
