1890.] TRANSACTIONS. 17 



least, he notes with surprise and some mortiticatiou. Possessing 

 a Library that has few equals ; its superiors in Anaerica, restricted 

 within its especial sphere, are less in number than the fingers of 

 one hand ; he sees its privileges contemned, and the prospective 

 benefits from its use utterly disregarded. Some of our members 

 have been ostentatiously delegated, by those who can be forgiven 

 for ignorance of the opportunity at their very doors, to dive or 

 delve at will in the pile of black-letter gathered in and heaped 

 up on Tremont Street. Forty miles inland, right in the heart of 

 this great Pomological County, is located a Library whose selec- 

 tion by Harris and Haven, Earle and Paine, should be a voucher 

 for its intrinsic excellence : and for the sustained quality of which 

 their successors may modestly assert that no depreciation has 

 been sufifered. Still, with all this accumulation of books, to what 

 actual use are they put? Elsewhere, — with no. invested wealth ; 

 with no commodious halls, in exclusive ownership ; without even 

 a printed page; we witness the origin and successful develop- 

 ment of a flourishing School of Botany. Is that any concern of 

 ours — as Florists ? Does that boldly invade our peculiar prov- 

 ince and challenge our perception of duty ? Or do we rather 

 achieve the complete aim and scope of our incorporation as, once 

 a week, we invite this suffering brother to accept Three Dollars 

 for showing us a dozen Boscs or Greenings ; or award to the 

 bashful thrift of that forlorn sister Fifty Cents in gratuity for a 

 confession of inferiority that shrinks from competition ! 



How notable, or how insignificant, are our contributions to the 

 study of Entomology, whereof the knowledge is fast cominar to 

 comprehend the problem of success or failure in any and every 

 branch of Horticulture ? What do we add to the lore of Noxious 

 Insects ; — what it is that facilitates their development ; — to what 

 extent the plague is influenced or modified by the relative sever- 

 ity or humidity of successive seasons ! In what way are we to 

 distinguish the useful parasites which hold them in check ; and 

 without whose beneficent aid the activity of our insect foes would 

 be yet more pernicious ! 



Are our local applications, — our cunning contrivances, — of 

 more good than harm ? destroying only our enemies and sparing 

 our allies. If aye, — in what manner, and to what degree, are 



