148 ANNUAL REPORT 



LETTER BROM R. B. JORDAN. 



Palatka, Florida, Dec. 27, 1882. 



Friend Oliver Gihhs. Jr.^ and friends of the Minnesota Horticul- 

 tural Society. 



As I sit writing and look out of my window upon a garden 

 green with vegetables, and oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and 

 bananas loaded with their yellow fruits, the pleasure and excite- 

 ment have so scattered my thoughts from the stern necessity of 

 top-grafting a few semi hardy trees upon the crabs to if possible 

 make them more hardy, that I would not be able at this time 

 to give you anything of interest unless it would be a description of 

 this " laud of flowers and sunshine," and as more ready and genial 

 wits than mine have done their best with paper and pen, I will not 

 tax your time and patience by saying more than that the change 

 from a Minnesota winter with mercury 25 degrees below zero, to 

 Florida with TO above, with her fruits and flowers, actually takes 

 from a Minnesotian for the time, all ideas of business. 

 Yours respectfully, 



E, B. JORDAN. 



Reports of delegates to other State societies being called for, 

 Secretary Gibbs responded as follows: 



Mr. Dart and myself were elected delegates at the same time; he 

 to Iowa, I to Wisconsin, The Iowa Horticultural Society meets 

 the same time as ours. He is off there now attending to his 

 duties, and his report is expected in time for our Transactions 

 of the year. The Wisconsin meeting was held two weeks after 

 ours. I went down, accompanied by President Harris, who carried 

 credentials from the Northwestern Society at La Crosse, but who 

 kindly divided the responsibilities with me and deservedly got 

 most of the honors of representing our society. I had to brace his 

 courage up so that he could take the floor and make a little speech 

 occasionally, but he rendered good service, and I was glad to have 

 him there. Only once did his unsupported modesty fail him, and 

 that was when speaking of the distribution of seeds by birds and 

 animals to account for successions of plants and trees, sometimes 



