336 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Another investigating committee is now in order, and Heinl had 

 better buy a ticket for Canada. 



Mrs. Kellogg exhibited a beautiful bouquet of wild flowers, gathered 

 recently in California, while the snow from the mountain tops was being 

 blown into the face of the friend who gathered them. 



At rather a late hour, Capt. Keiser came puffing into the room, bur- 

 dened with a gigantic hyacinth, bearing a flower stalk nearly eighteen 

 inches in length. The house was immediately filled with a delightful 

 fragrance,, for which the people were, for a time, at a loss to decide 

 wliether the Captain or the hyacinth was responsible ; but, upon investiga- 

 tion, it was decided that the plant, and not the Captain, should wear the 

 laurel. 



Mrs. Deweese, from the Committee on Horticulture, then took the 

 floor (or rather a chair), and read an essay upon the Care and Cultivation 

 of House and Bedding Plants. 



A long discussion upon this and other subjects occupied the time of 

 the meeting. 



JULY MEETING. 



The currant tree, rooted and grounded in the fruit of its own pro- 

 duction and placed near a window early in the evening, by Mr. Roberts, 

 drew a large crowd of people into the County Court-room before the time 

 for calling the meeting to order had arrived ; and the great array of small 

 fruits and flowers, placed a little further back, succeeded in holding them 

 there until the clear, shrill voice of the President commanded attention. 



Small Fruits — the subject before the meeting for consideration — was 

 fully and freely discussed by the different growers in the vicinity. 



Mr. Chapman opened the ball by calling attention to the rapid in- 

 crease in the consumption of small fruits in our own city. Ten years ago 

 ICO boxes of strawberries completely glutted this market, while now 

 thousands of them were consumed daily during their season, and for years 

 he had not heard the cry, " Hold, enough;" and the increase in the de- 

 mand for other fruits was equally as great; while the decrease in sickness, 

 so very common during the summer months, was a subject worthy the con- 

 sideration of every head of a family. Rotation in fruits, like rotation in 

 office, was greatly to be desired, and he would open the season with an 

 early variety of strawberry — say Brooklyn Scarlet, followed by the Wil- 

 son's Albany, then the Green Prolific — which provided a supply of choice 



