1896.] TRANSACTIONS. 9 



and fashion that the simple lovers of flowers in the home-garden 

 should suffer themselves to be carried ofl" their feet in the mad 

 rush to swell the throng which wastes energy and life in the 

 inanities of Vanity Fair? 



Such species arc not, and cannot be, grown by the great 

 majority of our members. Nor is it too much to assert that 

 they are without the range of cultivation by any but the very 

 few who get their livelihood by the growth of flowers that are 

 beyond the means and skill of the average horticulturist. And 

 after they have been thus rarely developed, they are at once 

 placed on exhibition in every Florist's window, subject to cull 

 and purchase by every one that passes. Are they withheld 

 from public view that they may be displayed first in our Hall? 

 The intense verdancy in such a question might well represent 

 two blades of grass where was but one before. Do you care to 

 see them, after hours and days of prolonged exposure to com- 

 mon inspection, when what chance to be left are brought in 

 here, old and stale, if haply they may coax a languid gaze. 



This Society is one of two or three in the world, — the Worlds 

 mind you ! that can pay its debts and thereafter stand upon its 

 feet, solvent and reputable. What it now is, it has become 

 through strict attention to its legitimate business ; burning 

 incense upon the altars of Flora and Pomona, but never sacrific- 

 ing fatlings to brainless and formless idols. To its constant 

 influence is it due that our homes are brighter and therefore 

 happier ; and to its substantial encouragement may we attribute 

 the marked expansion of a taste for floral beauty once awakened. 

 Our awards are generous, if not lavish, and sufiice to many who 

 might otherwise have to deny themselves, enabling them to 

 procure plants and seeds, the nucleus of future displays upon 

 our tables. We cannot, if we would ; we ought never to wish 

 to tag on behind the beneficiaries of Fraud and Trust — the pam- 

 pered children of manifold monopoly to whom it is all one 

 whether they provoke a languid curiosity by otfering premiums 

 of One Hundred Cents or a like number of Dollars. If you are 

 wise in your day and generation, valuing the continued exist- 

 ence of your Society in sound and wholesome vitality, you will 



