86 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



suggest, but I wish here and now to voice my appreciation of the 

 work that Mr. Jackson has done for the botanical interest and educa- 

 tion of the City of Worcester. 



We have not forgotten his work rendered here several years ago, 

 nor his first published list of the Flora of Worcester County. And 

 now he comes forward and adds to this work, standard works, few of 

 which are published in our cities. 



A person who is not conversant with botanical knowledge, can at 

 the proper seasons familiarize herself or himself with a great deal of 

 the natural flora of our vicinity. And I, for one, certainly appreciate 

 and voice the sentiment of all true lovers of nature. 



I think Mr. Jackson must feel to-day that, for an inclement day, 

 his audience shows their appreciation of his work already rendered, 

 and the things shown in his paper. But you and I, Mr. President, 

 notice here familiar faces that are constant attendants at our discus- 

 sions on other themes. I am confident that there are others here who 

 are far more deeply interested in this subject than the one who is now 

 addressing you, and who, from early spring to late fall, are looking 

 out and finding in their favorite botanical recesses, these little flowers 

 and plants that have been described. 



I claim that I have not the ability to draw these young ladies into 

 the pleasant conversation and discussion as if they were in the class- 

 room with Miss Tucker. I wish it were possible now that the meet- 

 ing might take up an informal matter, and that they might question 

 our speaker in an informal way and get the fullest benefit of the 

 meeting, by discussing the native flora of this section. 



Mr. Jackson. I want to give one illustration of the way in which 

 a person gets acquainted with the native flora. Some dozen yeais 

 ago a list of the plants I wanted to preserve was printed in the Spy, 

 as often as they amounted to fifty. 



A physician in this city, in very active practice, who had preserved 

 the whole set, showed me one of those slips that he had cut out of 

 the paper, and said that when the proper time came he would take 

 out the proper slip for the season, and as he rode along through the 

 country and saw a flower he was not familiar with, he would take out 

 the slip, and by noting the day of the month he could in a great 

 many cases tell what flower he had got, by seeing how near it was to 

 the description on the paper, as he had not time enough to spare to 

 analyze the plant. He said that he made out a great many of them 

 by doing so. I think it adds very much to our interest in plants to 

 see what somebody else thinks about them. 



