94 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



To the President and members of the Horticultural Society : 



Having examined the vouchers and accounts of the Secretary, we find them 

 correct, and we believe the financial aflairs of the society have been judiouscily 

 and economically administered. N. F. MURRAY", 



J. B. DURAND, 

 A. NELSON. 



PRACTICAL BOTANY. 



PROF. H. W. SPECKING, ST. LOUIS. 



Mr. President, Members of the Hoiticultural Society, Ladies and 

 ■Gentlemen: In this age of dollars and cents, when most people measure 

 everything by its market value and hardly stop to think long enough to 

 see the value of anything that is not immediately convertible into 

 money, it is a somewhat bold undertaking for a man to make a speech 

 in public of the kind that I intend to make to-night. But feeling that 

 this society and the good people of Brookfield who have honored us 

 with their presence are of a progressive spirit, and ready to support 

 whatever promises to advance the cause of humanity, even if it does 

 take time and money, conflict with previous opinions and point out 

 errors in our daily practice, I venture to freely express my views before 

 this audience. I do not wish to fire your minds with enthusiasm, for 

 this would render you unfit for the deliberation and persistent exertion 

 upon which all real progress depends. I do not wish to lift your 

 thoughts to the skies with my eloquence, because for practical pur- 

 poses it is best to have our thoughts where we are. My object is to 

 impress upon your minds the fact that a more thorough knowledge of 

 botany than is possessed by our average farmers and horticulturists is 

 necessary for them in order to succeed in the future ; to point out the 

 best methods of diffusing such knowledge among them ; to give some 

 information gathered from my own experience with plants ; and, lastly, 

 to show how a better knowledge of the plants by which we are sur- 

 rounded will in many ways increase our joys and diminish our sorrows. 

 For whatever does this, I call practical, whether it brings dollars and 

 cents or takes them away. 



Our knowledge of plants begins in our earliest childhood, and 

 those who have had the fortune to live where vegetation is abundant 

 have early acquired a considerable amount of practical knowledge of 

 plants without much exertion on their part. To this stock of know- 

 ledge we are continually adding, as we cultivate our fields and gardens 

 or roam over the fields and woods that surround us. So it mav be 



