18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1884. 



Mr. Harris might well inherit a taste for Horticulture. But, 

 whether innate, or acquired, such a taste grew with his years, and 

 ended only with his life at the mature age of Eighty-Four. In- 

 terested especially in Floriculture, it was his great delight to 

 enrich our earlier Exhibitions with some new and rare plant that 

 he had developed to unwonted and extreme bloom. His interest 

 in his garden was unabated, to the last. 



Elected Librarian, A. D., 1851, when our Books from their 

 number and value, began to require particular care, he continued 

 to hold that office until A. D., 1862, at which date the Library 

 was transferred to its present location and appropriate home in 

 this our own Hall. January 29th, in that year, a Committee, 

 consisting of D. Waldo Lincoln, Emory Banister, and Samuel 

 H. Colton, previously appointed to consider the subject of the 

 best location for the Library, reported among other things, as 

 follows : — 



" That they were impressed and surprised with the completeness and 

 great value of the Libi-ary, now containing many hundred volumes, 

 among which are works of the most rare and costly description, and 

 which could scarcely be replaced if lost. 



For this collection, so extensive and in such perfect condition, the 

 Society are under especial obligation to the Committee on the Library, 

 but more particularly to your present Librarian, Clarendon Harris, 

 Esq., under whose faithful care and judicious management it has 

 grown to its present importance. In addition to his services as 

 Librarian, Mr. Harris has furnished a room for safeguard, fiee of rent 

 and open at all times to Members of the Society." 



Thoroughly informed in all matters relating to the trade, he 

 was enabled to procure Horticultural works, as they were issued, 

 upon terms of peculiar advantage. Largely due to his wise 

 foresight is it, that we now possess so many of the more elaborate 

 and costly volumes, by foreign savants, of priceless excellence, 

 yet of such cost as to preclude all idea of their re-issue. He 

 held a firm faith in clear typography, good press-work, and stout 

 if not luxurious binding; yet he did not forego the chance of 

 securing any publication, of intrinsic value, however homely its 

 garb. He did so much that the labor of his successors has been 

 comparatively easy. That he could avail himself of the ready 

 council of Anthony Chase, Isaac Davis, and Frederic William 



