290 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



The Fleur-de-Lis. or Iris, is the national flower of France, and 

 dear to the heart of every Frenchman. The Shamrock, or clover 

 leaf, is the pride of Ireland. Scotland owns allegiance to so 

 humble a plant as the Thistle. But what the national flower of 

 America is I do not know, unless it may be the modest, sweet- 

 faced little Pansy. These subjects are mentioned to show in a 

 slight degree how the march of horticulture has been kept, and 

 the importance it bears in history, and the affairs of the world. 

 Other things are moving rapidly onward, and the science of 

 trees and plants is in the swim. It is keeping abreast with the 

 times. It is due to the eminent men who have toiled late and 

 early; it is due to their indomitable pluck and perseverance; it 

 is due to their magnificent powers of brain and hand that horti- 

 culture is where it is to-day. Does not this show us most clear- 

 ly that ours is a God-given calling, and therefore destined to 

 succeed, and perhaps beyond our wildest dreams? 



Excelsior is our motto. The wilderness must bloom; the 

 desert must be abolished ; each thorn must bear its flower, and 

 each flower perfect a fruit. Our forests must be protected, and 

 new ones reared. The millions that go abroad each year for the 

 products of the forest must be kept at home. This great land is 

 broad enough, and has ample resources to produce everything 

 our people need, and some to spare. This business of import- 

 ing our requisites from foreign countries — and especially the 

 timber and fruits indigenous to our own climate — must be 

 stopped, and instead of importers we should become exporters. 

 That is the direction to which our efforts should be turned, for 

 no other country on the globe can show such grand horticultural 

 results as we can, and no other has the resources that America 

 can boast of. Illinois has done her share in the past, and will do 

 itjn the future. Our appropriation from the state is but $2,000 

 a year for this great and important work. We have done all we 

 could on so small a sum, but it will not be long before the 

 appropriation is doubled, at least we hope so, for this good work 

 must not be stifled for lack of funds, especially in a wealthy 

 state like this, and one where the work we are doing, and con- 

 template, is so much needed. 



Here in the beautiful city of Normal, and within the great 

 center of the nursery business of the state, and close by the 

 "Evergreen City" of Bloomington, we are met to show the peo- 

 ple that we are in earnest; that the spirit of horticulture is still 

 alive, and that the Central Society has not been idle, nor lack- 

 ing in loyalty to its charter. No better time could have been 

 chosen for this gathering than the magnificent month of May — a 

 period just midway between spring and summer, the season of 

 the year when the budding hopes and aspirations of the horti- 

 culturists swell with the expansion of the buds and flowers of 

 nature. We cannot look about us for a moment, on any street, 



