70 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



of the Dog Star witli its baleful gleam. An honest purpose 

 conceals no furtive aims. Your Committee did not doubt that 

 the germination and growth of plants might be accelerated by 

 artificial methods. They simply decided that the employment of 

 such methods was not within the contemplation of the Trustees 

 when tlie schedule was adopted. 



The London Garden^ of July 30th, ult., published, as you will 

 observe, within two days of the date when this question arose 

 among ourselves, referring to a superb dish of Gloxinias, quotes 

 from Messrs. Sutton, the Florists who displayed them, as follows : 



" We always treat the Gloxinias as annuals, that is to say, we sow 

 the seed in January, and toward the middle and end of June we have 

 well established plants with several flowers on each such as those sent 

 you. These plants seed and form good, sound bulbs the same season. 

 We thus produce seed and bulbs in one year, instead of sowing one 

 summer for flowers the following summer, and we save, of course, the 

 trouble of one winter's storing." 



" We treat them as annuals" — which tells the whole story. 

 Whatsoever may be done with the Aquilegia, Sweet William, or 

 Z^oZZ^/Aoc^^' call them biennial, if you choose, and not inquiring 

 whether they can be forced into premature activity ; we have for 

 our own purposes, as Florists, compelled the Gloxinia to mature 

 in the same season that the seed was planted. Your Committee 

 concluded that the Trustees had no ulterior purposes in view; 

 that "Seedlings of 1881," was an honest phrase, with no latent 

 interpretation ; and that a frank invitation to all involves no lurk 

 ing snare for one. It is matter for regret always, when individ 

 nal measure of its own desert outweighs the general estimate. 

 It was the misfortune of the fly not to calculate with greater 

 precision the momentum of the cart-wheel. Entering upon this, 

 the Forty-Second year of a prosperous, and, may we not claim ? a 

 beneficent existence, the Worcester County Horticultural So- 

 ciety may hope to survive the chilling influence of chagrin, from 

 those who should know better, or the open manifestation of 

 pique, in cases wliereof, so far as this Society is concerned, the 

 least said the soonest mended. 



" Where ignorance is bliss 

 'T were folly to be wise." 



Another curious idiosyncrasy has developed itself witliin the 



