1881.] TRANSACTIONS. 81 



elucidate them. To refresh your memories, — a list of those 

 topics is subjoined : — 



A. D. 1880. 



Exhibiting and Judging Fruits and Flowers. 



Manures and Fertilizers. 



Growing and Marketing Small Fruits. 



Window Gardening and Winter Flowers. 



Out-Door Flowering Plants. 



Orchard and Vineyard Fruits. 



Does Horticulture pay ? And how ? 



Trees and Shrubs for Ornamental purposes. 



A year later, a similar series of meetings was lield, w.iereat 

 the themes assigned for consideration, were as follows : — 



A. D. 1881. 



January 6. Birds and Insects injurious to Horticulture. 



*' 13. Fruits and Flowers of Tropical America. 



" 20. Chemistry. 



" 27. Roses and their Culture. 



February 3. Orchard and Garden Fruits. 



" 10. Cultivation of Small Fruits. 



" 17. Evergreen and Conifer trees. 



" 24. House Plants for Winter. 



March 3. Esthetics of Earth Culture. 



And, preceding either series of meetings, with their prelimi- 

 nary essays and subsequent discussions, you had procured, and 

 offered to the community, a course of Lectures on Botany, by an 

 eminent Professor in the University at Cambridge, an authori- 

 tative abstract of which was afterwards published in your Official 

 volume of Annual Transactions. 



During those three years, at least, if at no other ])eriod! — 

 years replete with Exhibitions ; and affluent with the rare and 

 ripe fruits of learning and scholarship grafted upon experience ; 

 were you " advancing the Science and encouraging and improving 

 the Practice of Horticulture ?" By accepting your Charter, you 

 took that Trust upon yourselves. If you have discharged it 

 faithfully, and to the best of your ability, your property is 

 exempted from taxation by the Statutes. 



The Assessors of Worcester are evidently of opinion that you 

 have not fulfilled that Trust : since they have doomed your 

 entire Estate, which they would not otherwise have done, as 



