Decemhki! Hi, IS'.IT. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



145 



The Horticultural Building for the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, to be held at Omaha, Neb., next sununer. 



The location of the building will make 

 it a central feature, and it will contain 

 the ornamental plant, fruit and forestry 

 exhibits. In the center vmder the dome 

 will be placed a cr^-stal cave in a pyramid 

 of rocks covered with plants, down the 

 sides of which will trickle countless little 

 streams to the pool below. 



The building is 130x300 feet, and 160 

 feet to the top of the belfry, which will 

 contain the chimes. Above the dome is an 

 open observator}- from which a grand 

 view can be had, not only of the exposi- 

 tion grounds but of the city and adjacent 

 lakes, the picturesque valley of the Mis- 

 souri river and the city of Council Bluffs, 

 five miles away. Superintendent Taylor 

 has reason to be proud of the building 

 that will be under his charge. 



VIOLETS. 



"Flushed with splendor I have seen 

 Both the rcse and lil.v queen. 

 But no sovereign of the flowers. 

 Nor of kingdoms .such as ours. 

 Can a robe of purple get 

 Like my dainty violet. 

 Peering upward from the stem. 

 Than a monarch's diadem 

 Thou art (lueenlier far to me. 

 Princess of Humility." 



Joel Benton. 



How true the above is, to every grower 

 of violets, and I think it must be the ver- 

 dict of the general public, else theie 

 would not be the demand for them that 

 there is. However, these "favorites of 

 fashion" do maneuver strangely some 

 times. Take the Farquhar, for instance. 

 When it first came out, we ordered sam- 

 ple blooms for comparison with our Marie 

 Ivouise, and- we really could see no differ- 

 ence in them, although of course ours had 

 the advantage of not having been shipped 

 However we thought we would try a few 



plants for comparison, so two years ago 

 last spring we purchased a few, growing 

 them outside all summer, giving them 

 the same care as the other violets. They 

 did not grow quite so large as the Marie 

 Louise but looked all right until the 

 month of December, when they com- 

 menceil to have the spot badly, still they 

 flowered fairly well. But pick a bunch of 

 the flowers and hold them side by side 

 with a fiuiich of Marie Louise and one 

 could not tell which was which. These 

 were the only plants w e had troubled with 

 the spot, and it did not spread to the \-io- 

 lets planted next to them. However we 

 thought to give them a longer trial, 

 therefore we made what cuttings we 

 could that were clean and healthy. We 

 did not plant them outside last spring 

 but along the front of the house, with a 

 row of ventilators right against them, and 

 they have developed in fine shape, not 

 showing any signs of spot whatever, giv- 

 ing large blooms with heavy long stems; 

 a bunch of the blooms being much su- 

 perior to the Marie Louise. 



Again, last spring, we bought stock of 

 another violet, recommended to be very- 

 hardy, which we wanted for late spring 

 flowering. These looked fine and made 

 a nice growth till late this fall, when they, 

 too, commenced to spot badly. We have 

 them in cold frames now and cannot tell 

 yet what they will do the second season. 

 But here is a'question — is the spot apt to 

 occur when a violet is getting acclimated? 

 It would appear somewhat, by these two 

 trials, as if that were the case, although 

 the second trial has not progressed far 

 enough to tell for any certainty; in fact, 

 we never feel like asserting anything for 

 certain about violet growing. 



Now to make a Violet Department a 

 practical success, we believe that a hearty 

 co-operation of all interested must be had, 

 and think the result would be mutually 

 beneficial. Therefore, we wish that you 

 would send in any facts that you may 

 have met with in your experience, touch- 

 ing en this subject. We would also like 

 an open question box on violets, with an- 

 swers from those who have had any ex- 

 perience in the questions brought out in 

 this manner, and you may be astonished 

 to find that your neighbor follows an en- 

 tirely different method to attain the same 

 end, than you do, though you may per- 

 haps have thought your way was the only 

 one. R. E. Shuphei,T. 



Chatham, N. Y. 



A VIOLET DISCUSSION. 



The violet disease was the "bone of 

 contention" at the regular meeting of the 

 New Jersey Horticultural Society, held in 

 Orange, N. J., on Monday night, and 

 though it provided and received a lot of 

 picking from the many present, violet 

 growers got little comfort and less assur- 

 ance as to the possibility of .securing im- 

 munity by the adoption of any preventive 

 measures. A perfect galaxy of talent was 

 on hand, and for fully two hours the vex- 

 ations of violet culture were debated. 



The essayist of the evening was Dr. 

 Walter Dodge, who, without notes, in a 

 pleasant conversational style, gave the 

 result of his researches into the nature of 

 the disease familiar to all as the violet 

 leaf spot. As a first experiment he se- 

 cured a culture in a glass tube by inocu- 

 lating some "blood serum" with the dis- 

 ease germs, placing the tube in an incu- 



