80 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



The acceptance of an invitation from ns wonld impose responsi- 

 bilities for which it might he well to prepare in advance, by the 

 appointment of a competent Committee, and the delegation to it 

 of adequate and suitable authority. 



Had your Secretary reflected for a moment, upon the nature 

 of the duty vt^hich he imposed upon himself; a duty required by 

 110 rule, and whicli deference to unbroken custom did not then 

 exact; it is doubtful if tliis series of Annual Reports would 

 have been commenced. Public favor has kindly welcomed them, 

 and your direct partiality has stamped its seal of approval. 

 Perhaps as a record of development from year to year; a 

 review of the steady progress that has been made in " advancing 

 the science and encouraging and improving the practice of Horti- 

 culture ;" the labor spent in their preparation was not in vain. 

 Nor — even as an incentive to continued and further efl:brt toward 

 the ultimate attainment of perfection ; — that final goal of horti- 

 cultural saints ; — may they be esteemed wholly fruitless. Never- 

 theless, — their entire scope and tendency could not be thus 

 restricted : and therefore it is that your Secretary feels that he 

 would, have shrunk in dismay from the task, had he anticipated 

 into what dark and shadowy paths it would, all too frequently, 

 constrain his reluctant steps. For it has not been his good 

 fortune, always, to treat of new flowers or fruit ; to describe 

 some rare acquisition; or to comment upon those strange or 

 eccentric forms whereby Nature consummates her processes and 

 evolves new species, or genera. But, almost invariably at the 

 close of the year, to call the roll of our lessening associates, 

 following them into the deepening gloom, with only the melan- 

 choly satisfaction of embalming their memory and rehearsing 

 their virtues. Writing a necrology is but a dreary task, however 

 so much it may be a labor of love. These portraits upon our 

 walls are inaudible voices from the grave. But who was there, 

 if not your Secretary who knew them from his childhood, to 

 speak to you of Green and Chase ; of Champney and Draper ; 

 of CoLTON and Ripley ; of Jaques and Paine; of Lincoln (Levi), 

 Thomas; or either Earle ! And now that the arrow of the 

 insatiate archer has struck home, once more, shall the voice of 



