Vermont State Horticultubax Societt. 59 



Of the chrysanthemum, known of all men and everywhere 

 admired, I need hardly speak. It is of course indispensable to 

 the florist, and in its season- fills his house with a blaze of glory. 

 One who has never seen a chrysanthemum house in its prime, 

 can by no means realize the magnificence of the show. Solomon, 

 in all his glory, was never so arrayed. Yellow, bronze, red 

 and pink of every hue and shade, and balls of fluffy white, nod 

 and glow and revel in the sunlight. One can hardly believe 

 that such magnificence has been evolved by the florist's art 

 from what at first was an insignificant weed. 



The flowers I have mentioned are the principal ones grown 

 by commercial florists for their cut flower trade,, but of course, 

 they require a great and a constantly changing variety of flower- 

 ing plants. Collectors here and there and everywhere, from the 

 arid hills of Mexico to the dark forests of far Cathay, are send- 

 ing in continually some new thing. Some are good and some 

 are not. They must all be tried, but the old stand-bys will not 

 be easily replaced. 



Now just a word about lawns. Lawns do not strictly come 

 under the head of flowering plants or cut flowers, but lawns 

 and flowering plants go hand in hand. Wherever you find one 

 there is always a demand for the other. The lawn is the first 

 symbol of regeneration ; the first step in civic righteousness. 

 There is no surer index of the degree of civilization, either of 

 the individual or the community. The lawnless house, with 

 its constant abominations : burdocks and bull-thistles ; chickens 

 and dirt and desolation ; the unknown quantities in decaying 

 compounds, is certainly fit breeding-place for all manner of dis- 

 eases. On the other hand, the pleasant memories of childhood 

 nurtured amid beautiful surroundings, will cling forever with 

 a humanizing and ennobling appeal. 



Here at Vergennes I seem at home among old friends. 

 How often in the silent watches of the night have I seen again 

 your pleasant streets and heard again your roaring waterfall. 

 Here, of all the places I know, I would like to see the local 

 improvement, already auspiciously begun, carried forward until 

 Vergennes can justly claim to be the model city of Vermont. 



