102 MISSOURI STATE IK )K rUUI/rUUAL SOCIKTY. 



There are stories told of men selling their houses, farms, in fact 

 everything they possessed for a few splendid specimens of rare species 

 of Tulips. Hyacinths are also more extensively cultivated in Holland 

 than elsewhere. 



The Carnation Pink, which is such a great favorite among florists' 

 flowers, both on account of its beauty and fragrance, is extensively cul- 

 tivated in both Germany and Great Britain. A great many varieties of 

 it have been produced. 



Few plants possess such a tendency to originate new varieties as 

 the Dahlia. 



By cultivation over two thousand varieties have been produced from 

 only two species. It is surprising to note the points of structure and 

 constitution in which the varieties differ so slightly from each other. 



The Pansy is another illustration of an exceedingly variable plant. 

 It is one of the finest and perhaps the best loved of flowers, an i has 

 been wonderfully improved by cultivation. The varieties that have been 

 produced are innumerable and every new seed catalogue we receive por- 

 trays some wonderful new variety that has just originated which far sur- 

 passes any previous specimen. The finest Pansies are propagated with 

 great difificulty and require the most careful cultivation to keep them 

 from returning to their former wild state. 



The Chrysanthemum craze, which has been raging for the past few 

 years, has been the means of bringing into notice a flower which before 

 was not duly appreciated. Most of our Chrysanthemums have originated 

 from a simple Daisy-like flower first brought from an island just east of 

 China. The cultivation of it began in PLngland about the middle of the 

 last century and in America the first of this century. When first in- 

 troduced here there were only eight or ten varieties. Patience, care and 

 keen observation from year to year so developed and improved the plant 

 that to-day there are thousands of different shapes and varieties. 



Though there are many other of our florists' flowers which deserve 

 a special notice of their wonderful improvement and variation, we have 

 only space to speak of one, and so select the Queen of Flowers— the rose- 

 " The Empress of Flowers may claim, if she please, a more ancient mon- 

 archy than the Empress of India. 



' Never sure, since high in Paradise, 

 By the four rivers, the first roses blew,' 

 has she failed to maintain her royal supremacy." 



Though roses have been cultivated to some extent for a long time 

 the greatest progress in rose culture has been made in the past fifty 

 )-cars. 



