10 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



abandon all forms of Floral Debauch to the devotees of Fashion 

 and Folly, who have long lost every sensibility to genuine emo- 

 tion : whose sole appreciation of a Floral Display is based upon 

 their desire to show fine clothes in crowd, glare and crush ; and 

 of whom it is enough to say in this connection, when we are 

 pointed for an example to the sums that they half-contemptu- 

 ousl}' toss into the professional ring, that they never cared to, 

 and never did, maintain a Horticultural Society. We are told 

 that the Chrysanthemum is exhibited in the commercial metrop- 

 olis in pomp and splendor, amid the array of fashion and fri- 

 volity ; but we are not reminded by those who would have us 

 fool away our substance in like manner, that the patrons of such , 

 labored displays are of the class who vie with each other in the 

 profusion of their prodigal expenditure, and to whom, in turn, 

 it is one and the same whether the Exhibition consists of Flower, 

 Horse, or Dog ! With them — butterflies of society, — the abuse 

 of Floral Beauty verges upon prostitution. They form a frame- 

 work whereon to illustrate the art of their dressmaker ; and a 

 dress-pattern in their judgment far outshines the rainbow tints 

 of the most brilliant Japanese floriage. Shall we strive in hope- 

 less rivalry with that get of the Golden Calf? We might stim- 

 ulate the hot-house to its utmost product. Cui bono? Can a 

 ship be run forever on forced draught? Do we care to foster 

 the cultivation of Banana, or Pineapple despite every disadvant- 

 age of climate I It has been done in Worcester by our late 

 honored associate, William T. Merrifield, to satisfy his own 

 curiosity if it were any way practicable. Do we propose that 

 this Society shall encourage growth of the Victoria Regia^ 

 because some millionaire of Cordage or Standard Oil fancies it 

 for a green-house pet ! Let us be satisfied with the knowledge 

 that Fifty Years ago D. Waldo Lincoln grew and flowered that 

 superb exotic here in Worcester. And all the while bear con- 

 stantly in mind the significant fact that, while this, our thriving 

 Rural City possesses and might, if it chose, pride itself upon the 

 existence of a vigorous Horticultural Society, the huge, ever- 

 growing meti'opolis was never able to keep such a Society alive 

 for a twelvemonth. Of the reckless charge at Balaclava the 



