1879] REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



past, and during at least, that period, concluded your action as a 

 Society. As Horticulturists, have you any reason for genuine 

 regret ? Are you not content to persevere in the course delib- 

 erately entered upon, and, for the first time, consistently followed 

 throughout the official year that closed with yesterday's sunset ? 

 In his Report for A. D., 1878, your Secretary referred to our 

 weekly meetings as having been the life of the Society. How 

 only the faintest breath quivered in its nostrils when they were 

 instituted. Relating how they awakened interest, commanded 

 attention and invited membership ; he proceeded to indulge his 

 fancy in the portrayal of a possible future: "Attracting the 

 " first flowers of Spring, they could be made, by proper direction, 

 " to fill each successive week throughout the year, with ample 

 " suggestiveness to the eye or palate, until their close with the 

 "last fruits of winter. Every Exhibition would then have a 

 " freshness that can be attained in no other way. And novelty 

 " has a charm in itself. Your earnest attention is solicited for 

 " the policy, simply outlined as it is, of relinquishing the oppres- 

 " sive and unwieldy Annual Autumnal Exhibitions, and applying 

 "the energy and means, absolutely wasted upon them, to magnify 

 "the Weekly displays. The importance of these, conducted as 

 " now, when commenced each year, is found to increase by their 

 " own momentum. They grow large enough for convenient 

 " control, by August ; yet not too large to be comprehended in 

 "detail. What they might become, if kept up through the 

 " whole year, can only be told after actual experiment." 



And now that the experiment has been tried, it rests with you 

 to determine wherein, and to what extent, it was a success — in 

 what imperfect measure it was a failure .'' Among Plants, and 

 Flowers, there was evident a continuous development, from the 

 somewhat tardy Exhibition of Hyacinths until the final termi- 

 nation of out-door growth by a killing frost. Dates may have 

 been appointed, untimely. No one can foresee the precise 

 character of a season ; nor predict that an interval of " ethereal 

 mildness " will extract unnatural bloom from the gales and 

 snows of March. Something must be trusted to experiment ; 



