VARIOUS NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 115 



The annual report of the secretary of the society, E. Gurney Hill, of Rich- 

 mond, Ind., referred to the remarkable growth of the organization. It now 

 numbers as members the leading florists of the country, and also a majority of 

 the young, energetic, and pushing men of the craft. The Secretary reported 

 that five members had died within the year: J. Hodges, of Globe Village, Miss.; 

 William Bennett, Flatbush, N. Y.; H. J. S acker sdorff, New York: James Y. 

 Murkland, New York City; and William Oberly, Richmond, Ind. 



After the report of the officers had been read, the reading of papers began. 

 Peter Henderson, of Jersey City Heights, New Jersey, read an interesting 

 paper on 



THE PROGRESS OF FORTY YEARS. 



Erom which the following extracts are made : 



Cut flowers have been radically changed; 40 years ago camellia flowers freely 

 retailed at $1 each, and Philadelphia used to send thousands to New York 

 florists at the holidays, getting $500 per 1,000 ; while roses were going a beg- 

 ging at one-tenth that sum. Now the rose is queen indeed, and the poor ca- 

 mellia finds none so poor as to do her homage. The culture of tuberoses came 

 a little later. I find from an old schedule of prices that, in 1865, tuberoses 

 were quoted in November at $8 per 100, and a reference to my own books 

 shows that in that year my receipts from a house (10 by 100 feet) of tuberoses 

 were $1,500 in November ; now they are rarely sold at all in New York unless 

 to the poorest classes — Dame Fashion has stamped them out, as she. 20 years 

 before, stamped out camellia flowers. And just here comes the question, may 

 there not be danger of a rebound in the rose boom? May there not be danger 

 ahead in so many of us placing so many eggs in one basket, fascinating though 

 the basket be ? The increase in the sales of all products of floriculture, in the 

 past 40 years, has certainly kept pace with most other industries, and has prob- 

 ably exceeded many. In January, of 1844, I was employed by a New York 

 florist, who did nearly the whole business of the city at that time. His sales of 

 cut flowers for New Year's day of that year footed up the sum of $200. I have 

 but little doubt that the aggregate sales of cut flowers in the city of New York, 

 on the first day of January, 1886, was not less than $100,000, and the aggre- 

 gate for the past year can not be short of three million dollars, which is prob- 

 ably twice that of any European city of its size. An equal advance has been 

 made in the great sale of plants. We have good reason to believe that Mr. 

 Wm. Elliott, the well-known horticultural auctioneer, of New York City, often 

 sells more plants in two hours from his warerooms than were sold during a 

 whole season by the florists of New York in 1844. I know that he repeatedly 

 sells 50,000 plants in one lot ; and it is exceedingly doubtful if that number 

 was sold in New York during the year 1844. The past season there was prob- 

 ably shipped and sold in the market not less than 50,000,000 flowering and 

 ornamental plants, perhaps one- tenth of them sold at auction. The aggregate 

 sales can only be approximated, but I should think it quite safe to call the 

 average fully five cents apiece, or $2,500,000 for the whole. 



«fC *f» *l» *§* *f» t* H* t^ t* *p I* •!* •!» 



The most wonderful advance in floriculture has been in the construction of 

 cut flowers into bouquets and other designs. Eorty years ago, in New York, 

 in constructing a simple hand bouquet, some of us did not know enough to use 

 a thread to keep each flower in place as the construction went on, and it was 



