84 WORCESTER COUNTY SORTlCtTLTURAL SOCIETY. [1877. 



" hile nomen." But that is attributable to his individual modesty, real or 

 feigned : since, mutatis mutandis, any child in Germantown could readily 

 designate " Clarum;''^ and " venerahilis^^ is presumed, not unreasonablj^ 

 to have been the chief object of his own recent visit to the South of Eng- 

 land and the Channel Islands. 



Finally, it may do no harm to Mr. Meohau to be informed that, in no 

 community are his botanical labors more highly appreciated than in 

 this, which must be suffered to keep its eyes open yet a while longer to 

 the shortcomings of the Centennial Commission. Years have elapsed 

 since it was the privilege of your Secretary to move the enrolment of 

 Mr. Meehan among the Honoraky Members of the Worcester County 

 Horticultural Society. That action of his, meeting as it did with your 

 unanimous sanction, has never been regretted. We can surely hope that 

 " honors are easy.*' 



Circulars were received by your Secretary, in close and frequent suc- 

 cession throughout the winter of A. D., 1876-'77, wherein a person sub- 

 scribing himself " Gen. C. B. Korton, Late Secretary of the Bureau of 

 the Centennial Board of Finance," offered to frame Diplomas for a con- 

 sideration in money. Individual members, and even the MASSAcnusEXTS 

 Horticultural Society, were the recipients of similar communica- 

 tions. It is inconceivable that the Centennial Commission should lend 

 itself to such jobbery. And yet, how otherwise can we account for the 

 delay in transmitting the Diplomas and Medals ; unless by adopting the 

 absurd supposition that the Mint, and the American Bank Note Compa- 

 ny, whose facilities have been regarded equal to any demand, proved 

 inadequate to the stress of this moderate exigency ! 



At a special meeting of the Trustees, convened in the Hall of Flora, 

 upon the 21st of April, ult., on motion of Hon. George W. Eichardson, 

 seconded by ex-President Francis, it wasFoiecZ ; — " That the Secretary be 

 " authorized to procure a portrait of the late Governor Levi Lincoln, to 

 " be placed in the Library, of similar size and style to those of John Mil- 

 " ton Earle, and Daniel Waldo," now in the enjoyment of the Society. 



It was an unalloyed pleasure to execute that commission. The portrait 

 has been procured and is suspended in this Hall of Flora. Of its merits 

 you must be tlie severe judges. But it may not be improper to add, in 

 relation to its value as a likeness, that it fully meets the hopes and antic- 

 ipations of those who held him dearest in life, and to whom his lineaments 

 were most familiar.. 



There can be no adornment for these walls so appropriate as the Por- 

 traits of our Worthies. Towns and cities run economy into the ground, 

 — for compost forsooth ; — and cannot afford such extravagance. But 



