i8th February, A. D. 1892. 



ESSAY 



BY 



J. CHAUNCEY LYFORD, of Worcester. 

 Theme: — The Flora of Worcester County. 



When as occasionally happens in January or February, the seed 



merchant gratifies us with his annual catalogue, we feel again 

 the desire to resume our excursions into field and wood, and 

 long for the speedy coming of the time when we can again visit 

 some well remembered flower in its native haunt, renewing its 

 acquaintance and entering into its confidence. 



It is then that for a brief period our youth is renewed ; our 

 cares are thrown aside and pleasant anticipations arise. At 

 such times each experience throws us into one of those 

 emotional conditions which has possessed us at this season 

 of the year from the time of our earliest recollections. 

 Every fall of snow and swirl of wind among bare branches 

 seems but the finale of some performance, begun twenty 

 years ago and continued without intermission through the 

 intervening time ; and the splendors and the depredations of a 

 New England ice-storm, by some sort of magic, force us back 

 again to the paternal roof-tree and into the arms of our grand- 

 sires. 



Shut in between walls through the winter our thoughts now 

 wander more eas:erlv throuo;h the boundless domain of out-of- 

 doors. How is it at Rattlesnake Hill? Is anything a-stirring 

 in the woods of Old Boylston? What is the news from the 

 Sanctuary? What about Peat Meadow? When we were out 

 there last June everything was green and in the full uniform of 



