SPECIAL SPRING NUMBER 



Copyright, 1898, by 

 FLORISTS' PUBUISMING GO., 520-533 Gaxton Building, GtllGAGO. 



Vol. I. 



CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, MARCH 24, 1898. 



No. 17. 



THE SWEET BAY. 



The Sweet Bay (Laurus nobllis) has 

 been imported from Belgium to this 

 country in large numbers the past 15 

 or 20 years. Although the rather stiff, 

 formal shapes into which they are 

 trimmed and to which they so readily 

 contorm are entirely inappropriate in 

 the decoration of a drawing room, yet 

 there are many situations where they 

 have a striking effect and are certain- 

 ly not out of place. A single pair of 

 perfect form could be admitted to any 

 church ceremony or at the decorating 

 of a large hall. In the summer time a 

 handsome pair stand — one on each 

 side of the broad granolithic walk, 

 leading to a stately mansion on one 

 of our fine residence streets, and very 

 fine their appearance is. Too much of 

 it may get tiresome as clipped and 

 grotesquely-shaped Norway spruces do 

 if overdone, but the chronic grumbler 

 who in his ignorant and prejudiced 

 blindness objects to these handsome 

 Bay trees because "they are not nat- 

 ural" should wade through water and 

 live on porridge the balance of his 

 days. Their formality sets off the 

 brighter the natural grace of the 

 birch, the elm, the maple or Linden 

 and the more or less freedom of the 

 hardy flowering shrubs. 



Another place I found the Bays to 

 be useful was when asked to decorate 

 for a store opening and wagon loads 

 of palms are expected. They are just 

 the thing to fill up and a fine pair or 

 half a dozen of them on the sidewalk 

 is just what Mr. Goldstein wants to at- 

 tract the attention of every passer by, 

 and what could you put there equal in 

 appearance and withstand the ordeal 

 unharmed? Considering the years they 

 must be grown, the labor entailed and 

 great skill in producing such a large 

 tree in such a comparatively small tub, 

 their cost to us is. I think, very mod- 

 erate. 



It is often a surprise to us that such 



