1896.] TRANSACTIONS. 7 



Builders had not become co-extensive witli tiie Repablic. At 

 the termination of services so long and freely rendered it would 

 argue ill for the credit of this Society were it to withhold the 

 tribute to his memory so nobly earned by his disinterested 

 labors in our behalf. 



In this our Hall we shall see him no more in the body. But 

 there ought to be, and indeed is, no valid reason why the space 

 among his fellows, as yet vacant upon our walls, should not be 

 tilled by his portrait, to remind us continually that there is no 

 break in the endless chain that connects Horticulture upon 

 Earth with the Celestial Eden. 



Months, nay years, have passed into the endless chain of Time, 

 since, in response to somewhat querulous criticism of its con- 

 duct, your Committee on Library and Publication announced 

 that it had made arrangements for a Card Catalogue of all publi- 

 cations in possession of the Society. It is to be hoped that it 

 will be of use, when completed. So far, experience would 

 hardly justify faith in a crying need to be supplied in such form 

 and manner. The first application has j^et to be made com- 

 pelling recourse to the various decks cut, shuitied, and indicated. 

 In the dogma of the final perseverance of the Saints, however, 

 we are enabled to descry a ray of hope howsoever faint. So 

 that it is possible for us to trust that the proposed Catalogue 

 may be finished in the life-time of the youngest among you, Deo 

 volenie; and, more emphaticalljs its fjmcied benefits, Fmmind 

 placente, may be experienced by some now living. In the care 

 and management of a small, select, and somewhat technical col- 

 lection of Books, your Committee on Library and Publication 

 decline to keep pace with literary scorcher, electing rather the 

 sure, if more deliberate, guidance of Mnemosyne. 



So much by way of prelude ! to pattern after the pulpiteers. 



Upon this occasion my Text may be found in the fifteenth 

 verse, twenty-fourth chapter of Joshua : 



" Aud yet, if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this 

 day whom ye will serve ! " 



Shall this Society advance in the ways that have been approved 

 for a half-century ; ways whose signal success has commended 



