38 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1877. 



that contents itself with the cheap thrift of Coleus and Gerauiuui and 

 decUnes an arduous contest with pretty much the entire insect-plague? 

 But then, why not plant and grow the Rose in the faith of Busticus, as 

 expressed through his Committee in the General Court; trusting blindly 

 to the English Sparrow and the Tardus migratorius, and saving the sweat 

 of the brow for nocturnal wrestling with the arduous " work " of the 

 Grange! That industry which will not try to rescue the Eose from its 

 numerous foes, must necessarily fail to maintain an advanced position in 

 the ceaseless strife which the forces of Nature are over waging to de- 

 teriorate and impair. The florist who ignobly abandons the culture of 

 the fittest, need not expect that its survival will be measured unto him 

 in the vicissitudes of the seasons. And he must be prepared to take an 

 inferior rank, in his profession, who contents himself with Calaclium or 

 Lycopod, neglecting or indifferent to that perfection of beauty and fra- 

 grance which, from the dawn of history, have established the EoSE, 

 without compeer or rival, as the very Queen of Flowers. 



The display of Strawberries, throughout their season, was unsur- 

 passed in our experience as a Society. Varieties have been shown for as 

 many successive weeks, it is true ; — notably the Triomphe de Gand, years 

 since, by Mr. Charles Eichardson. But at no time were we ever privil- 

 eged to inspect so many different kinds — nearly all good, if of relative 

 degrees of excellence. JTature had been generally propitious, a deep 

 mantle of snow protecting the plants, and timel}'^ though light showers 

 encouraging and forcing production. The Colonel Cheney and Monarch 

 of the West merited and received the attention claimed for them by their 

 skillful grower on " Sunnyside ;" and the " sports " from " Pine Grove " 

 betrayed no evidence of deterioration. Later experience has, however, 

 shown pretty conclusively that for general cultivation, in this vicinity, 

 little is to be gained by a search for anything better than the Charles 

 Downing and Jucunda. Tlie white tip of the former is prejudicial to it, 

 in the hasty judgment of one who beholds it for the first time, in igno- 

 rance of its real merits. Nevertheless, considering its quality and the 

 facility wherewith it adapts itself to all localities, to the Charles Downing 

 must be accorded precedence among early Strawberries. In addition to 

 which it continues to bear until a fastidious palate craves a change of va- 

 riety. And that is supplied, in unrivalled excellence, by the Jucunda. 

 This superb berry, grown in hills, here and there occasionally in rows, 

 kept free from runners and with the ordinary abrasion and waste of soil 

 annually restored, is absolutely peerless. In its possibilities of universal 

 dissemination, it is perhaps inferior to the Triomphe de Gand ; but its 

 symmetry of form and less peculiar flavor will always command the palm 



