1892.] FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 53 



devotion, the same enthusiasm which graced our fathers there is 

 still room. 



We have passed long ago the primary and adolescent stage. 

 We have mastered the rudiments. We are versed in the gram- 

 mar of Pomology. We have traversed, in a fashion, the whole 

 curriculum to which self-instruction and receptivity is more 

 especially incident. And we have reached the broader plain of 

 post-graduate investigation. Our work to-day is altruistic, 

 humanitarian, diffusive. 



To the fruits which cool the parched lips of the fever-stricken 

 patient we are adding nectarian sweetness and ambrosial flavors. 

 To the flowers which cheer the waiting hours of the invalid, 

 which brighten the wedding feast, and rob death of its gloom, 

 we are giving more brilliant colors and a sweeter fragrance. 



If the lawns and grounds of our citizens have assumed an 

 added grace and loveliness ; if our streets and outlying avenues 

 are lined with trees of grateful shade ; if parks and public 

 grounds have been set apart, to be adorned not with Piiidian 

 statues, but with forms of beauty fashioned by God's own hand ; 

 — what agency other than this Society has been more potent in 

 these results. It created and nurtured that aesthetic taste without 

 which these things had not been possible. 



Let us gladly then take up the burden ; with " Noblesse 

 oblige" for motto, let us raise still high our standard. The age 

 of receptivity is past. Not in self-seeking, not in the advancement 

 of mercenary schemes and enterprises, not in treading the circle 

 of our own selfish interests and petty ambitions, shall we best 

 fulfil the sacred trust imposed upon us — but by a diflfusion 

 through every avenue in our power of the light and knowledge 

 we possess, by furnishing to all who will partake, the wine and 

 milk of this our Horticultural Art, without money and without 

 price, by striving to make not only the earth but the lives of those 

 who inherit it more beautiful. 



Thus shall we in a broader and grander sense than our 

 Founders ever dreamed, advance the knowledge and encourage 

 the practice of this our noble science. 



