72 "WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



former custom, the commencement of Floral Exhibitions to a 

 later date. They are not strenuous about it, but simply suggest 

 that, held concurrently with meetings for Essay and Discussion, 

 the Exhibitions are relegated to a position of inferiority and 

 scarcely repay their cost. Were they used for purposes of 

 demonstration by practical Botanists, there could be no question 

 of their absolute utility. As it liappens, a bouquet is brought in; 

 and now and then a creditable fuchsia or geranium. Should it 

 not receive pecuniary recognition, the committee are blamed for 

 inability to appreciate a modest merit that might as well have 

 continued to bloom unseen. Later in the year, when the Hall of 

 Pomona is literally crowded with deserving articles, the gratuities 

 that were lavished upon the altar of good nature, during Janu- 

 ary and February, are sadly missed. Our old practice of initiat- 

 ing the series of Floral Exhibitions with a display of Azalea 

 Tndica, seemed to work well. Possibly Primroses and Hyacinths 

 might anticipate the Azalea by one or two weeks. It will be for 

 the Trustees to determine if anything is gained, by an attempt 

 to combine the visual observation of one thing with mental in- 

 struction upon another, that is widely dijQferent, if not wholly 

 alien. 



The Floral Committee of the JVew England Agricultural 

 Society^ of which your Secretary had the undesirable honor to 

 be Chairman^ were painfully impressed by the meagreness, or 

 utter lack, of offerings for many of the choicer species of 

 Flowers. Our own Schedule, great as was the care bestowed 

 upon its construction, was noticeably deficient in that respect. 

 Take, for example, the Sioeet William ! always a favorite ; 

 which, latterly, has been invested with a brilliancy and variety 

 of color that might almost challenge rivalry. And then, too, 

 the Antirrhinum — or Snap-Dragon ! with even greater diversity 

 of light and shade ; — ranging from buff to magenta, — and com- 

 pelling attention were it merely from the peculiarity of its flori- 

 age. Three Dollars is the munificent sum proposed, in two pre- 

 miums, for the best six varieties of the Genus Lilium ! to whose 

 pristine glory, thousands of years since, the magnificence of 

 Solomon was declared inferior. The Pumpkin Sweet Apple 

 gets as much. 



