SOCIETT OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 235 



Stopping for a iDoment's thought, again, with the nurserymen, 

 in 1876, they mostly, but with a sprinkling of florists and seedsmen, 

 started the National Association of Nurserymen and kindred pur- 

 suits. It was, and is to-day, a big thing. It started in Chicago and 

 the West that year, but came back to Chicago in 1884, 1 think. They 

 came again the next year : the nurserymen rather like that city. But 

 in the latter year the florists attending the meeting, a few of them, 

 met in the Sherman House, and organized a Florists' National 

 Society, and broke away from the old one. Why, it took like wild- 

 fire from the first. Its growth was phenomenal, like the trade it 

 fattens on. A thousand members attended at the New York meeting 

 last year. * 



Every city of any importance is alive with florists. The big 

 cities could muster a regiment, the smaller ones a goodly number. 

 Even a village has its florist now-a-days. They turn out millions of 

 plants, to say nothing of cut flowers, to decorate the flower garden 

 for the summer months only. But they have driven out the old- 

 fashioned flowers. They give us something gay, but ephemeral ; our 

 good old friends — the sweet williams, lark spur, London pride, 

 southernwood, primroses, holyhocks and Canterbury bells, even hardy 

 roses and sweet briars, are getting lost in the shuffle. 



" I like a shrubbery, too, it looks so fresh ; 

 And then there is some variety about it. 

 In spring, the lilac and the snowball flower. 

 And the laburnum, with its golden strings 

 Waving in the wind ; and, when autumn comes, 

 The bright red berries of the mountain ash. 

 With pines enough, in winter, to look green. 

 And shew that something lives." 



Miss Muloch, after giving a description of one, says : " Oh ! the 

 dear old-fashioned garden, such as one sees rarely now-a-days. I 

 would give the finest modern pleasure-garden for the like of thee." 

 But a few years ago the florists and gardeners were all foreigners : 

 not enough in it for a native-born American. Then a few hundred 

 dollars was all that was invested, but now tens of thousands are 

 the rule. Even capitalists look to it for profit — to turn a penny. 



In 1858 or 1859, I think, I made a philopean bouquet for some 

 bankers to present to Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas. I spread myself in 

 style and size and, I thought then, in price. I charged ten dollars. 

 It was the talk of the time. Somewhere along in that time the 

 Prince of Wales, then a stripling, was visiting this prairie country, 

 taking in some shooting at Dwight, a little south of Chicago, but 

 good hunting then. The late " Long .Tohn " was then mayor of 

 Chicago. He and others banqueted the young prince. I furnished 

 the table at the banquet, and daily at the shoot, a floral basket. It 

 was a big thing then, so would a fifty dollar bill be as a charge. 



