1892.] FIFTIETH AKNIVERSARY. 51 



early in its history to establish a fixed and reliable nonaenclature, 

 to weed out from its premium catalogue so many worthless 

 varieties, and to present that list of few but choice fruits which 

 for the past twenty years, it has (with but slight changes) recom- 

 mended for general cultivation. But the literary work of the 

 Society was not confined to its library. 



Not long after the establishment of the weekly exhibitions, 

 meetings were held at stated intervals for discussion. These 

 discussions at first were extemporaneous, and in the main simply 

 an interchange of experience and observation in fruit culture. 

 And yet the writer can recall, in his own experience, no meetings 

 of a like nature more instructive or edifying. Made so, because 

 embodying, without surplusage or padding, but put in simple 

 language and terse phrase, the results attained by years devoted 

 to the study and practice of pomology by such enthusiasts as 

 John Milton Earle, Geo. Jaques, Samuel H. Colton, James 

 F. Allen, O. B. Hadweu, and many others both living and 

 dead. These discussions eventually took a broader scope. In 

 1877 the practice was inaugurated of holding meetings during 

 the winter months, at which papers or essays should be read, to 

 be followed by discussions upon the theme presented by the 

 essay. These essays embraced a wide range of subjects in 

 floriculture, arboriculture, fruit culture, native or local flora, 

 and in fact covered the whole ground of botanical and horticul- 

 tural science. They were prepared and given partly by members 

 of our own Society and partly by gentlemen from abroad, but 

 always by those having a special and intimate knowledge of the 

 subject treated. 



In 1879 a series of botanical lectures was given under the 

 auspices of the Society by Prof. George L. Goodale of Harvard 

 University. In addition to this literary work, mention should 

 be made of the annual addresses of the earlier Presidents, the 

 valuable reports of committees, made before our present system 

 was adopted, and later on the reports of our Secretary, who has 

 for the past twenty-eight years presented an exhaustive annual 

 review and summary of the Society's doings, together with 

 suggestions as to its future policy, as well as a general outline of 

 new results in horticultural science. All these papers and docu- 



