FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
3 
judging of appearances for they are de¬ 
ceiving. 
But I dare not tell you how enthusias¬ 
tic I am about this region for after all as 
a government official who has fascina¬ 
tions in every State it would be indiscreet 
and I would be playing false to those 
plant pets in other States which are just 
as interesting and just as promising as the 
tropical ones which are making their little 
beginnings here; plants which are at per¬ 
sonal risk and strenuous effort being 
hunted for by explorers of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture in various parts of 
the world. 
But you are more, than simply the Flor¬ 
ida State Horticultural Society, ladies and 
gentlemen. You are the largest body of 
men and women in the whole world which 
is interested deeply in the subject of trop¬ 
ical horticulture. And during the delib¬ 
erations of your Society which are to 
come I sincerely trust that you will look 
upon yourselves not merely as one of the 
State Horticultural Societies of America 
but as that one to which has been entrust¬ 
ed the vast and fascinating problems of 
the horticulture of the tropics. 
You are in a very peculiar sense exper¬ 
imenters. There is scarcely a single one 
of you who has not growing in the door- 
yard of his home a tree or shrub of some 
kind which he is watching with the clear 
eyesight of early morning. Its behav¬ 
ior as a little seedling, its first leaves 
even, its first blossoms, its first fruit, 
the insects which first find and attack it, 
and its first fungus disease, as well as its 
response to the feeding with commercial 
fertilizers which you give it, are all things 
to you of the keenest intellectual interest. 
Your interest in these things is not that 
of a bystander but that of a parent who 
wants the plant to grow for it is your par¬ 
ticular plant and in your imagination you 
see it as it will be perhaps when you are 
old. 
Nothing can take the place of an ob¬ 
servation of occurrences. It is the direct 
way and you who are living close to the 
plants are the ones to find out things 
about them. 
And let me say to you without any de¬ 
sire to flatter you that it is your inter¬ 
est in those new plants which my asso¬ 
ciates and I have had the great pleasure 
of importing for you during the past 
twenty-three years, which has furnished 
the continuous stimulus and encourage¬ 
ment to our explorers in foreign countries 
to undergo hardships in order to get the 
new plants. 
And now you have come together to 
exchange your observations and get ac¬ 
quainted with each other and see what 
kind of men these are who publish about 
what they see and especially what they 
think. 
It is in your power, ladies and gentle¬ 
men, to make, this a great meeting. 
I have attended many scientific meet¬ 
ings in my life and some, religious gath¬ 
erings. I have gone away from both lift¬ 
ed up and enthused or disgusted and irri¬ 
tated, depending upon occurrences which 
though trivial in themselves, contami¬ 
nated with personal criticism and sarcasm 
the whole atmosphere of the assembly. 
I recognize that we cannot in scientific 
matters be uncritical, that pride of opin¬ 
ion has really no place in science, that hu¬ 
mility and perfect frankness make rapid 
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