1874,] REPORT OF SECRETARY. 61 



demonstrated), that our original orchards were planted upon forest clear- 

 ings, or upon those natural openings whose rich humus was the accumu- 

 lation of centuries. 



And here it is perhaps as pertinent as anywhere to express a regret that 

 the Society has failed to concur with the Secretary in his estimate of the 

 value to the members of a course of Botanical Lectures. Possessing, in 

 our own Commonwealth, a Master of that science, to whose teachings the 

 learned of all lands reverently hearken, we plod along in contented igno- 

 rance, and decline to avail ourselves of the instruction that ought to be 

 eagerly solicited. Few will read, even cursorily, fewer still will spare 

 time to study the printed text-book, but all would listen eagerly, as, with 

 lucid utterance and earnest enthusiasm, the profound knowledge of Asa 

 Ch-ay should be instilled into willing ears. There are some in the com- 

 munity for whom sonorous periods and vapid verbiage have lost their 

 fascination. If merel}' as an intellectual problem it might be worth while 

 to test the attraction, if any, that sound learning has for the public. 



The continual need of studying, or identifying varieties of flower or 

 fruit, inadequately met as it has been, would, of itself, be sadly sugges- 

 tive; but when, in addition, we have had to miss the constant presence 

 and unwearied fidelity of our late associate, our sense of the deprivation 

 experienced by the Society in the death of John Milton Earle, acquires a 

 keener poignancy. Appropriate action was taken by the Trustees, at a 

 special meeting, in solemn recognition of the loss to the Society, as well 

 as to the cause of Horticulture, occasioned by his decease. It is no part 

 of my purpose to attempt his eulogy, or to disturb a single leaf of that 

 autumnal chaplet that lies so softly upon his grave. But yet I may, per- 

 haps, be pardoned, as one whose memory goes back to events beyond the 

 personal knowledge of most of you, if I revert to his early participation 

 in these meetings at the Old Town Hall, by the origination and mainten- 

 ance of which William Lincoln, Christopher C. Baldwin, Emory Wash- 

 burn, and George Folsom did so much to awaken and foster a love for 

 botanical research among the pupils of our public schools. Sharing in 

 their early morning rambles, when, armed with baskets or plant-case, 

 they sallied forth to ransack Newton Svvamp or Salisbury Grove, he was 

 also as eager as the youngest boy among them to detect the Orchis or 

 Cardinal Flower in the mass of weeds beneath Avhich it had been hidden. 

 A close and observant student of nature, he had early learned to inter- 

 pret her language, and to master the abstruse lore which serves as a veil 

 to her hidden mysteries. Those lectures, if so they may be termed, 

 unstudied and informal as they were, supplied pretty much all the 

 knowledge of botany ever acquired l)y those who were privileged to listen 



