Joint Convention. 221 



■winter, in a temperature not below, at any time, 50° Fahrenheit. 

 Last summer some of ni)' bulbs sent up a second flower stalk after 

 the first bloom had all i;one, but too late to blossom in the garden 

 in this climate. 



It not unfrequently occurs that a lack of knowledge respecting 

 the kind of soil adapted to the plants under cultivation, defeats 

 success. I have in my own experience been battled and disap- 

 pointed on this account, and as often on account of the soil being 

 too rich as too poor; especially has this occurred in the cultiva- 

 tion of monthly roses. The best and only way to determine the 

 kind of soil best adapted is by experiment; yet one may, if fa- 

 miliar with the nativity of plants, know something of what is 

 required. I had supposed that the beautiful trailing blue 

 Lobelia, that is so much used for hanging baskets, was a tender, 

 delicjite plant, and had treated it as such; imagine niy surprise a 

 year or two ago, when wandering among the rocks upon a small 

 peninsula between Sawyer's Bay and Green Bay, about sixty 

 miles north of the city of Green Bay, to find it growing and 

 blossoming profusely in crevices so small between rocks that you 

 could hardly insert a knife blade. Around an old stone quarry 

 I found quantities of Alleghany vine in full blossom; and on the 

 point of land on a very thin layer of soil, not more than two or 

 three inches thick, over solid rock, I found numbers of what we 

 call AVaxberry or Snowberry bushes, growing and covered with 

 an abundance of berries. 



Last summer I found some beautiful plants of Clarkia in full 

 blossom in our Fox River Drivino: Park. 1 imajjine thatherethe 

 cutting down of some of the trees helped to bring this plant to 

 perfection, as 1 have never noticed them before, although I had 

 been over the ground many times. Thus by observation in their 

 nativity may we glean many important facts. 



At best, in horticulture, success depends largely upon an atten- 

 tion that involves not only labor and patience, but careful study 

 and observation. There are many theories advanced by our 

 scientific men, respecting the distribution, propagation and hy- 

 bridizing of plants, that are interesting studies, when followed 

 with experiment and practical results. If, by any means, the 



