1881.] TRANSACTIONS. 55 



institution, whose sole aim and effort should be to engendei' and pro- 

 mote a genuine love of gardening : regarding the Annual Show as 

 merely an imperfect exponent of the work done, and not as its sole 

 aim and purpose. Successful Horticultural Societies do not depend so 

 much upon the length of the subscription-list as upon the bona fides 

 of the Officers and Committee. Permanent success is not to be gained 

 by the spasmodic efforts of people whose only motive is glory, or four- 

 penny bits." 



That WHS somewhat of a random stone, yet it cracks glass 

 across the Atlantic, The Qhairman of the Floral Committee, 

 ignoring tlie marquees and elephants, yet retains visions of 

 Rinks and Electric Lights ; — of a darkness alike palpable or visi- 

 ble, and of a heat indisputably infernal; of gold medals for 

 instruments evoking aught but harmony; and of a male rivalry 

 wherefrom the element of good breeding was painfully lacking. 

 His apology for getting mired in that morass, — holding the 

 official relation to you that he does, may be summed up briefly : — 

 loyalty to a friend who was true as steel in time of trial; and an 

 inexhaustible willingness to spend, and be spent in the service of 

 "Worcester — City or County. But — those " wet days " and the 

 consequent " financial collapse " ! is it prophecy ? 



Advance our standards ! is not simply a poetic pl]rase : but 

 rather an injunction, or viot d' ordre^ — which flies along the 

 ranks, inciting each to do his utmost, to gain and uphold a worthy 

 position. If those of you who visited Boston, upon a recent 

 memorable occasion, were surprised, it could not have been with 

 any painful emotion. For now you cannot help but know and 

 realize ; what I have so often insisted upon in these Reports ; — 

 that Worcester can grow as goodly a crop as any garden since 

 Eden ; that her soil is still fecund ; and that her yield is exhaust- 

 less : — whether the demand is to till the halls of State witii 

 Judges or Governors, or exacts that more beneficent harvest of 

 Flower, and Fruit, wherewith a bounteous Nature maketh glad 

 the heart of man. In whatsoever we are inferior, it will be our 

 privilege to supplement deficiency : but, at present, the members 

 of this Society may well decline to concede to any, a position of 

 superiority, as sincere and successful votaries of Ceres, Flora, 

 and Pomona. 



And why should we not take and maintain the lead in the 



