8 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1885. 



its existence is warped. His business is to sell and . get gain. 

 And that, in getting so much of the world, he has not utterly 

 forfeited his own soul, may be accounted as greatly to the credit 

 of his occupation. Yet the Worcester County Horticultural 

 Society was founded by Amateurs, has been sustained by them, 

 is in a sound financial position through their bounty, and must 

 depend upon them for its healthy, permanent support. The 

 taste of the amateur is natural, if untutored. What he does not 

 know, he may learn. The professional florist is too apt to be 

 possessed of the devil that goes up and down in the modern 

 Athens ! His foible, too, is omniscience. The amateur does 

 not insist that his Rose shall have been formed upon the turning- 

 lathe, — his Aster shaped in a matrix! An imperfection, here 

 and there, insignificant at worst, simply makes it of the earth — 

 earthy. And there is where it belongs. Have patience, and 

 wait for your Blue Roses, until you are transplanted to the New 

 Jerusalem ! 



Let there be no misunderstanding ! The contention is not 

 that the co-operation of the professional florist should be re- 

 pelled ; for, in the opinion of the writer, it should not only be 

 invited but cordially welcomed. But the suggestion intended is, 

 that his habit is too artificial to govern in the formation of a 

 schedule, however valuable may be his advice and aid. Ordi- 

 narily, — he will slight the popular preference, if he does not 

 treat it with outspoken contempt. And yet the Society or indi- 

 vidual, that can popularize a love for flowers which can be 

 grown by all, will have achieved more for the ultimate welfare 

 of professional floriculture, than if they were to develop inex- 

 haustible sources of latent heat or mines of native* glass ! And, 

 of this class are notably Annuals and Bi-ennials, — with the line 

 of division between them sometimes almost imperceptible. Of 

 later years, somewhat has been done for their encouragement, 

 by our ofifered premiums : yet but a trifle compared with what 

 was possible. The Scabiosa got a foot-hold in our schedule, 

 thanks to John Milton Earle ! But where are the Eschscholtzia, 



* This was almost written native Brass ! But tlie writer remembered, in 

 time, that such mines exist, and can be found (if only) in Maine ! to put trust 

 in Morse's Geography. E. W. L. 



