546 SEIBERT 



highly respected addition to the community. Furthermore, the botanic garden 

 more than Hkely could afford to hire an extra gardener to make the garden 

 more attractive to the visitor. 



The economic plant which was formerly grown and studied at the botanical 

 garden has now been turned over to the experiment station and the chemist, 

 where again the hand of the highly specialized is in demand. The economic 

 plant, as usually referred to, is one which produces food or medicine or other 

 industrially usable product. We are all familiar with the fact that most of 

 the economic plants were originally introduced and distributed to the other 

 parts of the world through arboreta and botanic gardens. That is still going 

 on today and no doubt will always continue to be an important function of 

 theirs all over the world. I think, however, that we should revise our thoughts 

 about economic plants. Statistics prove beyond doubt that the status of 

 ornamental plants needs to be elevated to a position equal with that of "eco- 

 nomic plants" — for that is what they are! Therefore, every arboretum and 

 botanic garden is the potential source of new economic plants which eventually 

 work their way into the trade and become that much more bread and butter to 

 the nursery and cut-flower industry. 



The floriculturist and the horticulturist have become concerned with 

 bigger and better-grown, relatively few flowers and plants which can be 

 mass-produced most economically for mass public consumption through high- 

 pressure advertising. Far be it from me to say that the arboretum and botanic 

 garden cannot find or produce and publicize new and highly desirable plants 

 for the trade. It is being done every day and no doubt will always continue. 

 I do think that with a few exceptions far too little credit has been given to 

 the responsible gardens for the hundreds of plants which they have introduced 

 into the trade and which today help to pay the income taxes of thousands of 

 nurserymen and florists, horticulturists, and floriculturists. 



The nurseryman has learned that it is easier and far more economical to 

 mass-produce a relatively few plants than to deal in great quantities of spe- 

 cies. The more progressive nurserymen of this country are working closely 

 with the arboreta and botanical gardens and, I might say, do fully realize 

 the value of these institutions. That value, I believe, centers around several 

 theories about the future of ornamental horticulture: (a) Fads in flowers 

 (and plants) are and can be as changeably exciting as fads in the clothing 

 industry, (b) Although mass-produced plants of relatively monotonous 

 variety will continue to form the bulk of the initial landscaping of newly con- 

 structed homes, the demands of the novice home gardener, as he becomes 

 acquainted with the fascination of home gardening, become more those of the 

 connoisseur and he wants something different from that in his neighbor's 

 garden, (r) Home gardening is America's No. 1 hobby. Hobbies mean col- 

 lections, and collections lead to the unusual and different. Therefore the 

 nurseryman who can qualify with these plant materials will increasingly more 



