38 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1882.] 



growth of his favorite fruit. He was conscientious to an 

 extreme. When the writer remonstrated with him for decHning 

 a re-election upon the Board of Trustees, Mr. Lamb repHed that, 

 as he was no longer able to place anything upon our tables, he 

 thought it his duty to give way to some one who could. Of him 

 it may be truly said, that he labored with assiduity in the 

 positions assigned to him ; and that those who knew him most 

 intimately are his sincerest mourners. 



Jonathan Grout became and continued a zealous Horiculturist, 

 during the second and third decades of our Society. It was natural 

 that this should be so ; for his kith and kin had been rooted in the 

 soil of Worcester for many generations. Our late associate was an 

 enterprising stationer and bookseller, in his earlier career ; 

 taking therein the first steps towards an accumulation of property 

 for which he never lost the faculty. When his attention was 

 turned to Pomology, he had the rare good fortune to enjoy the 

 friendship and proximity of the late John C Ripley ; whose 

 intimate acquaintance with fruit ; its varieties and comparative 

 excellence ; was equalled only by his willingness to impart that 

 knowledge to all, and any, who could penetrate beneath the veil 

 of a modest diffidence that shrank from the least semblance of 

 obtrusiveness. His advice, especially concerning Pears ; of which 

 he had educated himself to be, perhaps, the most exact judge 

 that our Society ever ranked among its members, was of infinite 

 service to the new beginner. 



Mr. Grout was also fortunate in the date of his enterprise ; for 

 Samuel H. Colton and Daniel Waldo Lincoln were withdrawing, 

 or had already retired, from the Nursery business ; and he had 

 absolutely no rivals : certainly none upon the scale to which he 

 speedily enlarged his operations. There may be some exaggera- 

 tion in the statement : but it has been asserted, by those who 

 should be well-informed about the facts, that his importations of 

 Pear-trees from France amounted to 10,000 annually. He also 

 engaged largel}"^ in the cultivation of Roses ; and was eminently 

 successful whenever he competed for the prizes ofiered, at our 

 Summer Exhibitions, for that noblest of flowers. He strove ever 

 for the first place ; and the very eflfort went far, by its earnestness, 

 to challenge and win the final triumph. 



