74 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTtCULTtJRAL SOCIETlT. [1876. 



" Flowers exert upon the mind and character, both of the young and old." 



The mention by Mr. Cheever of bur "system of arrangement" renders 

 it not improper to state that the system, so happily approved by us, has 

 commended itself to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, aud has, 

 within the last year, been adopted by that venerable but wide-awake or- 

 ganization. That Society has also viewed, with favor, our method of 

 designating varieties, and compliments us by requesting specimens to be 

 used as models. In these facts may be found some slight excuse, for 

 those of us who, acknowledging our provincialism, yet fail to envy 

 others of superior leisure or better fortune, whose natural rusticity has 

 taken such dazzling lustre from a casual metropolitan intercourse. If 

 our light was not set upon a hill, neither has our talent been hidden in a 

 napki and buried in the ground. 



The imperative need of greater precisiim in Nomenclature is constant- 

 ly claiming attention. Species are often displayed upon our tables, — not 

 infrequently by the same grower, — which have no points of dissimilarity 

 save the name. Among the Small Fruits, by which designation Berries 

 of all kinds are understood to be included, this has been a source of seri- 

 ous trouble. In his Report for 1873, your Secretary remarked upon one 

 feature of a Summer Exhibition, that — 



"Too many of the lots of Currants were untrue to the accredited traits of 

 " the alleged varieties. Thus La Versaillaise, which has no especial charac- 

 " teristic, if not its long clusters, was misrepresented by stems bearing 

 ''at least but five or six berries. The most experienced cultivators in- 

 " cline strongly to the opinion that the distinction between the Cherry 

 " and La Versaillaise is without a difference. But what if growers are 

 '• not even careful to maintain a distinction ? So, too, of the White vari- 

 " eties. There were displayed during the past Summer, boxes of White 

 " Dutch, White Gondouin, and White Grape ; of very great similarity in 

 " appearance •, and between which it would not be desirable to preserve 

 " any line of demarcation, unless elements of superiority are more obvi 

 "ous than was the case on the 17th of July. It is noteworthy that one 

 " noble box of Red Dutch surpassed in size its fashionable and modern 

 " rivals, as it notoriously does in flavor whenever and wheresoever put in 

 " competition." 



Among the manifold services rendered to mankind by the Royal xlor- 

 ticultural Society of England, in whose recent unmerited misfortunes all 

 Horticulturists can but feel profound sympathy ; none are greater, if 

 some have been more conspicuous, than the Experimental Trials of va- 

 rieties of Vegetables and Fruits, instituted and carried out under its aus- 

 pices. At one time every known kind of Potato has been collected from 

 far and near, from the continents of Europe and America, and from the 



