34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1869. 



peculiarly fitted for our purposes can be designated within the limits of the city. 

 One of our shrewdest associates, Mr. James White, complimented your Secretary 

 by saying that the scheme was magnificent. If so, let not its grandeur appal 

 you, but "rising to the full height of the occasion, look boldly to the inevitable 

 and not far remote future of Worcester I Such an acquisition would remedy 

 the vexatious defect in our existing boundaries by an exchange of titles. Its 

 improvement, by the construction of a Hall alike creditable and profitable, would 

 demonstrate our aptitude for our position, and clearly indicate our consciousness 

 that the requirements of fifty or a hundred thousand people are not to be 

 restricted or measured by the instrumentalities which suffice for five thousand. 

 ff at any time, gentlemen, I may have seemed to press too strongly upon you 

 this idea of a change of our location, you must make due allowance for my 

 earnest desire to promote the interests of our cherished Society, and my hearty 

 flith that, in that way, are those interests to be most certainly and permanently 

 advanced'. I have sometimes had visions of a possible Ecole Polytechnique, 

 of which our corporation should be the nucleus, and connected therewith the 

 young and active Natural History Society. Akin in pursuits and tastes in 

 many respects, in none divergent, one roof might accommodate both to mutual 

 advantage. In the direction hereinbefore indicated, the uplifted arm and mas- 

 sive liammer upon the weathervane of the Boynton Institute already point. 

 Engacred in diverse modes, and by somewhat alien appliances, the investigations 

 and researches of all tend directly to the same end— the wresting from nature of 

 the hidden and mysterious processes whereby her elementary changes are evolved. 

 Whenever the new Horticultural Hall shall be completed, with adequate ac- 

 commodations and suitable conveniences, we may count with confidence upon 

 a much larger measure of that public patronage and support which we shall 

 have done s^'o much to merit. Nor will it be unreasonable to anticipate renewed 

 proofs of that wide-spread liberality to which the rapid enlargement of your 

 Library is so materially due. Thither, too, should be brought and suspended 

 the portraits of our deceased associates and benefactors ; of those who founded 

 the society thirty years ago ; of those others by whom its existence has been 

 subsequently maintained and its usefulness kept unimpaired. By way of 

 initiating such a movement, let me place at your disposal the engraved likeness 

 of one who, throughout a long and memorable life, deemed no enjoyment so 

 sweet as that which was derived from the observation and study of nature. 

 Add to it, gentlemen, the portraits of Waldo, and Green, of Paine, and Ripley ; 

 and in the future,— may it be far distant-the features so familiar and welcome 

 at our meetings. Upon yonder shelf you may now perceive some objects of 

 plastic art for which we are indebted to the forethought and liberality of our 

 late Treasurer. Modeled in France from fruits grown by Mr. Francis G. Shaw, 

 upon Staten Island, in the bay of New York, they constitute alike admirable 

 specimens of skill, useful subjects lor study, and permanent memorials of him 



