1892.] FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 67 



Krelage of Haarlem, Holland. An invitation was duly mailed 

 to him and only this morning I received a dispatch by ocean-cable 

 in which was embodied the terse but cordial message, — " Felici- 

 tate!''^ If you will accept my interpretation, I should say that 

 this might be taken for the Latin of Oh be joyful ! (Great 

 laughter.) 



N. B. As this publication is designed to constitute a perma- 

 nent and full record of an unusual occasion, it is thought best to 

 insert here a letter from Mr. Krelage, which came to hand the 

 very morning after the Festival, having by some post-official care- 

 lessness, been missent to Worcester, England. The mention of 

 John Milton Earle, with its recital of the bill of somewhat old- 

 fashioned bulbs, will attract especial interest. 



Haarlem, 23 February, 1892. 



Edward Winsloxo Lincoln, Esq., Secretary to the Worcester County Horticul- 

 tural Society, Worcester, Mass., U. 8. A. of N. A, : Dear Sir.— I have been much 

 pleased to receive your invitation to assist as guest at a banquet given 3 

 March next to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the 

 Society by law. 



If I had been free to dispose of my time, nothing would have been more 

 agreeable than to go immediately to the steam-navigation office to talje a ticliet 

 for the journey across the sea and to be present at the delivering of the ad- 

 dress of your most honorable president and to join the happy members at the 

 banquet. 



As this, however, is impossible, I beg you to accept for the Society my 

 warmest feelings and congratulations, expressing the hope and the convince- 

 ment that tlie Society will yet for a long time be at the head of the Horticul- 

 tural movement of America and may once celebrate the hundred's anniver- 

 sary of the incorporation by law under the most agreeable auspices. 



Then without doubt, when the roll of your members is made up, a great 

 number of asterisks (*; will have to be added to those marked in your list of 

 1886, and many of those, who have now the warmest feelings for your 

 Society, will perhaps be remembered only by their names on your roll. But 

 such remembrance is of a great value. 



In looking over your roll of members I was struck by that of Mr. John 

 Milton Earle, as I suppose one of the founders of your Society, at least from 

 the books of my firm I find that my father dealed, if not just half a century 

 ago, just more than 48 years past with the same Mr. John Milton Earle and 

 supplied him with a lot of Dutch bulbs; in later years this first supply was 

 followed by a regular correspondence. 



As I am proud to be able to prove such old relations of my firm with one of 

 the most eminent horticulturists of your place and doubtless one of the most 

 regretted members of the Society, I take leave to enclose a copy of the In- 



