23$ Bulletin 147. 



must have the kinds that last well and ship well. His business 

 is chiefly with cut flowers. The amateur is chiefly concerned 

 with plants. It is highly unfair to reproach the florist with want 

 of taste. The mixed bouquet, with its tin foil, is passing away. 

 Dried grasses and dried immortelles are still in demand, but the 

 florist does not create this demand. Indeed, the fashions in the 

 world of dress and in the world of flowers have fundamental 

 differences in their origin. Whoever starts them, the florist does 

 not, and the general taste of the American florist is higher to-day 

 than ever before. 



The amateur class, however, is the great conserving element. The 

 commercial motive being absent, the amateur can keep a variety 

 whose flower he likes, even if the plant has a poor habit. Not poor 

 taste but practical reasons compel florists to discard some of the finest 

 flowers. Hundreds of varieties of chrysanthemums are discarded 

 because they are too tall, or require too much staking or disbudding. 

 Others cannot be planted close enough together in the modern method 

 for cut flowers, where the total salable product of a whole plant is one 

 unbranched stem and one flower. The amateur can afford to keep 

 varieties with bare or drooping necks if he likes the flowers. He may 

 be wiUing to stake and tie such plants as are illustrated by figure 174, 

 and perhaps he may like the droop of the stems so much that he does 

 not mind the stakes and the strings. Perhaps he likes the great hollow 

 cone leading up mysteriously into the warm, golden heart of the 

 flower. But the florist cannot sell such things. Figure 175 shows a 

 flower of the same variety which is presumably grown on a single 

 stem. The flower in figure 175 is larger, has no yellow disc, will ship 

 better, last longer when cut, and it will sell. Figure 176 represents 

 another amateur's ideal, and so do the loose, free and fantastic forms 

 figured in Bulletin 112. As a rule, only compact and globular 

 chrysanthemums can be depended onto stand a long railway journey; 

 therefore, the florist must, perforce, adhere to these forms if he would 

 make a living. 



As this may be the last bulletin of this Station in which varieties are 

 prominently mentioned, it is worth while to make a strong appeal to 

 the amateurs of this country to keep a firm hold upon all the main 

 types, and especially to retain the sorts whose delicate flowers will not 

 bear transportation, 



