132 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETr. 



cut, yet one party authorizes me to sell cheap one accessible lot 

 from which experts say forty million feet ma}' be cut yearlj' for the 

 next fifty years, even if timber grows none during the time. Yet I 

 believe there is both profit and pleasure in growing timber, and that 

 the subject of forestry is one of vast importance to your State and 

 mine as well as to the country at large. — John D. Lyman, in 

 Lewiston Journal. 



A NATIONAL FLOWER. 



Professor Thomas Meehan, the botanist, and also poets, scientists 

 and others, support the idea of adopting a national flower for 

 the United States — ^just as Ireland has the shamrock, Scotland 

 the thistle, England the rose, and France the fleur de lis. Sugges- 

 tions of choice include the sunflower, the golden rod, and The Phila- 

 delphia Ledger favors "the noble plume and tassel of Indian corn — 

 the fruitful, widespread Zea mays. Possibly that may be matched, 

 but it cannot be superseded." 



L. Prang & Co., art publishers, Boston, have issued recently' a 

 floral design in the form of a folio inclosed within ornamental covers. 

 There is a full page chromo of arbutus and another of the golden- 

 rod. Each purchaser is allowed to send in to the publishers on a 

 postal card furnished for the purpose his preference for the national 

 flower. The golden rod would be a good one. 



THE CULTURE OF WILD FLOWERS. 

 At a recent exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 one exhibitor showed thirty-eight varieties of native asters. They 

 were given good culture and bore a fine display, both in hue and 

 form. Beautiful specimens of gentian were also exhibited. A lady 

 enthusiast also made a display of native plants and flowers. There 

 are more than sixty different golden rods and many more of the 

 asters. We have frequently seen scattering plants of these, grow- 

 ing along the edges of cultivated fields, and they seem to take 

 kindly to^cultivation, and, in fact, are improved wonderfully by it. 



NURSERY FRAUDS IN THE WEST. 

 It matters not where a tree is grown, whether east, south or 

 north, that tree is best^^that comes to the planter in the best con- 



