1880.] TRANSACTIONS. 63 



saj that while they can endure abuse, tliey do not hanker after 

 it ! The gentlemen whom you appoint to serve you, in such capa- 

 city, are presumed, from the mere fact of their selection, to he tit 

 for their place. If not a too violent presumption, — might they 

 not be credited with honesty of purpose and integrity of action ? 

 " To err is human ; " and the Members of your Com- 

 mittees are but mortals. Nevertheless, spending hours at a 

 time in an attempt to apportion strict justice to all concerned 

 (can it be possible that this is what is least wanted ?j they should 

 be held exeuipt from the wanton imputation of corrupt decisions, 

 or motives, at the bare prompting of individual chagrin. None 

 would concede, more readily than your Floral Committee for the 

 past year, that their superiors might be caught by going out into 

 the highways and compelling them to come in. But the high- 

 ways were not thus raked, for A. D. 1880 ; so that Flora, to 

 establish her church, was constrained to choose her deacons, if 

 not the whole congregation, from such material as she could find 

 handy. They may not have been, it is true : 



*' Sugar and Spice 

 And everything nice : " 



But neither were they 



" Rats and snails 



And puppy-dogs' tails." 



Simply genuine men, and true horticulturists ; of whom some 

 flatter themselves that they know how to grow flowers, and others 

 remember how flowers have been grown, for fifty years. Set 

 against this tiie narrow conceit which leads each or all to fancy 

 their own plants pre-eminent ; confront a straiglit forward pur- 

 pose with the passionate rivalries of sex ; keeping ever in mind 

 that, while there would be no excuse, there can be no occasion for 

 partiality ; and who will fail to exclaim with the great epic Poet 

 of our Mother-Land, — 



" He that has light within his own clear breast, 

 May sit i' th' centre, and enjoy briirht day : 

 But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, 

 Benighted walks under the mid-day suu; 

 Himself is his own dungeon." 



