WORCESTER COUNTY 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



A. D. 1895. 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Meynhers 



of the 

 Worcester County Horticultural Society : 



For long years have the Members of this Society seen the 

 name of James Frank Allen enrolled upon its list of Trustees 

 and placed at the head of its Committee on Nomenclature. Yet 

 to how few were his features familiar, or even a memory of his 

 life-long service to our local Horticulture kindly treasured! 

 Confined to his home by physical infirmity for many years, he 

 was deprived of that personal association which had been one 

 of his most cherished enjoyments. But there are some, few 

 enough as it sadly happens, who recall the assiduous devotion 

 that he brought to the definition of variety or species ; a task 

 always sufficiently exacting, and one wherein no man may hope 

 to excel who is not inspired with a hearty enthusiasm for 

 science and its precise terminology. In those days we were 

 less fortunate than now in the possession of expert judges, upon 

 whose accuracy of decision we are wont to place such implicit 

 trust. If we could secure a Chairman for our Committees who 

 would assume the burden of writing their Reports, as was then 

 the custom, we were apt to flatter ourselves that we had fulfilled 

 the whole duty of the Horticultural man. But a perfunctory 

 discharge of obligations devolving upon him did not content our 



