BANQUET TO GARDENERS. 57 
itable as they expected they would. And that opens up 
another idea, whichI am sure you will all bear me out in, and 
that is that very few commercial florists have ever succeeded 
in their profession who did not love the business, who did 
not love their plants and their flowers, who did not live with 
them and sleep with them. Unless a man love flowers he 
had better not undertake their cultivation. He must prize 
them not for their mere money value but for their beauty, 
their influence, their refinement and their refining tenden- 
cies. 
And that opens up to us another subject: the good the 
commercial florists may derive from the bequest of our late 
friend Henry Shaw. I tell you, gentlemen, that that be- 
quest, if properly handled, and I hope it will be and it has 
every appearance at present of being so handled,— will be 
worth millions to us, if indeed we can measure such a 
thing in dollars and cents. It has set an example to every 
man of means in this country, and shown him that there is 
a wide field for the development and increased usefulness 
of horticulture in its various branches and more particular- 
ly in floriculture. We are indebted, and ever will be in- 
debted, to Henry Shaw and to the Trustees who will man- 
age that estate for all time to come; and it is our duty, 
as it will be for our interest, to assist and encourage by 
every act in our power the work that has been so nobly be- 
gun. 
Tam glad to hear the report from Professor Trelease in 
regard to the working of the school he has established here, 
and I think we will reap much benefit from the results of 
that school. It will give us a class of young men, once 
they shall have begun to graduate from the school, who will 
be able to enter the practical part of the business, taking 
hold from the very start, and reasoning from cause to ef- 
fect; who, when called upon to do a certain work, will 
have the knowledge to discern whether it is in accordance 
with what is known of the laws of botany or horticulture 
as a science; and through that means we hope to stand ona 
