WINTER MEETING. 149 



SOME DESIRABLE NATIVE PERENNIALS. 



C. B ELLIOTT, PANACEA, MO. 



Mr. President, Ladles and-Gentlemea— Three different classes of floriculture- 

 ists will listen to the reading of this paper, and the statements, assertions and con- 

 clusions herein will seem erroneous to one, if not to two of them. 



You are all familiar with the legend abaut the two knights of olden time, 

 who, happening to meet from opposite directions at a shrine where a shield was 

 elevated on a post, engaged in tierce battle because one asserted the color to be 

 white and the other contended it was black. After a protracted engagement, and 

 when both were severely wounded, they saw that the shield was white on one 

 side and black on the other. Lest we be like them, or like one who " beateth the 

 air," let us first distinctly understand from which of the three standpoints I am 

 treating this subject. 



One class [ may designate as "commercial florists." They will estimate the 

 value of a new plant according to its value for selling, and the points of value to 

 them would be about in this order : 1. Ease ( including rapidity ) of propagation 

 and handling; 2, striking appearance; and, 3, availability for cutting purposes ; 

 while gracefulness, intrinsic beauty, hardiness and its relation to the rest of the 

 garden would go for but little. Another section of flower-growers maybe con- 

 sidered as belonging to this class, though there will be none of them found ( unless 

 accidentally) at a horticultural meeting; I may designate them as " orthodox " 

 florists. 



They grow annuals mostly, and the same succession of the same varieties 

 only that their great-grand-parents grew— marigolds, pinks, hollyhocks, etc., and 

 their estimate of the value of a plant is based on the amount (mass) of bloom to 

 the square foot, and on whether other people have them. 



This paper is not written from the stand point of the commercial florist. 



A second class I may designate as " landscape floriculturists," who consider 

 a plant only in its relation to others and to the lawn, and their standard, of esti- 

 mate of value of a plant, will be widely different from that of the first. 



Neither is this paper written from this stand-point. 



A third class I may designate as " amateur" or " experimental " growers — 

 those who consider and estimate each plant by itself, aside from its relation to 

 others or to the grounds, and who love to develop and improve new and beautiful 

 flowers ; with whom it is an important consideration to grow something not only 

 beautiful, but rare or odd. This paper is written from the stand-point of this last 

 class. For illustration, take 



Oenothera il/issouHensis ( Missouri Primrose). Its roots are very thick, deep, 

 and so brittle as to be diflicult of transplanting; it doesn't seed very freely, and 

 the seedlings do not bloom the first year; its decumbent, straggling stems give 

 the plant a ragged appearance in the border; its beautiful silver-gray, narrow 

 leaves contrast so beautifully with its large, broad, go.den-yellow flowers, which 

 are from three to five inches in diameter, its being diurnal instead of nocturnal in 

 its bloom, its excellent resistance of drouth, and long season of bloom — all make it 

 a striking and beautiful plant in itself. 



One other point, and this preface will be ended. My experience and obser- 

 vation is confined to the southern section of the state ; I have no certain know- 

 ledge as to the hardiness north of the Missouri river, of the plants I thall describe. 



