77 



To Royal W. Turner of Randolph, for fine collection of 



pears, ........ Diploma. 



To James Ritchie of Roxbury, for fine collection of pears, 



and seedhng from seed of the Seckle, . . . Diploma. 



The Society is under great obligation to many other contribu- 

 tors, among whom are Richard Richardson of jNIedway, Lyman 

 Kinsley of Canton, H. L. Stone of Grantville, E. W. Mcintosh 

 of East JSTeedham, Mrs. W. B. Kingsbury of Roxbury, N. Long- 

 fellow of Needhara, B. N. Sawin of Dover, M. Randall of Sharon, 

 C. F. Curtis of Jamaica Plain, Luther Richards of Dover, Thomas 

 Barrows of Dedham, David A. Baker of Dedham, H. W. Jones of 

 Dover, Ephraim Wilson of Dover, and Mrs. Turner of Dedham. 

 For the Committee, 



ELIPHALET STONE. 



REPORT ON FLOWERS. 



If that wise man of the East who wrote so many proverbs, and 

 who discoursed so learnedly on trees, " from the cedar tree that is 

 in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall," 

 had lived in the daj^s of the Polyanthuses and Pelargoniums, the 

 Thunbergias and Eschscholtzias, Weigelias, Dielytras, Calceolarias 

 and Whitlavias, he would undoubtedly have needed a larger, or cer- 

 tainly a tougher brain than probably even he possessed. Whoso 

 gives himself to these things, now-a-days, would hardly find 

 time to write proverbs or pay much attention to matters of state. 

 What would the Brecks and Iloveys, the Nugents and Barnes, 

 the Hunnewells and Rands, and Sumners and Copclands of our 

 day think, if they were compelled to add to their labors that 

 of regulating the afiairs of the nation, writing treatises of philoso- 

 phy, building large churches, and generally turning their hands 

 to all manner of things under the sun ? More lives would they 

 need than justly belong to that ancient friend of man, Felis Catus, 

 reputed to die eight times and live again another term of life. 

 Not to touch the trees, the wild and tangled locks of mother 

 earth, not to recognise the existence of murphies and marrowfats, 

 the crops of Weathersfield, ruta bagas and brassicas, without 

 which the husbandman would find his field's but nature's baldness 

 manifest, the floral kingdom opens for man a study and occupa- 

 tion that have their own cxhanstlcss pleasures, their own al)ini- 

 dant, rich rewards. The corolla of the first flower you may 

 chance to meet is a world of wonder, beauty and wisdom, nay, is 



