702 



HORTICULTURE 



November oO, 1907 



PARIS AUTUMN SHOW 



On Friday, November 8th, the Na- 

 tional Horticultural Society of Prance 

 opened its great autumn show of 

 chrysanthemums, fruit and vegetables 

 in the two large greenhouses on the 

 Cours la Reine, near the Champs 

 Elysees, Paris. The opening day was 

 as balmy and gentle as early Septem- 

 ber and thousands of visitors pressed 

 their way towards the show, the 

 crowd at times Ijeing so dense thi;t 

 movement round the slaow, notwith- 

 standing the great space, was slow and 

 tedious. 



After the judging was over M. Fal- 

 lieres, president of the French Re- 

 l)ublic, paid an official visit. He was 

 escorted round the show by M. Viger, 

 president of the society. M. Abel Chat ■ 

 enay. the secretary, M. A. Truffaut. 

 M. Philippe de Vilmorin and quite a 

 suite of officials and members con - 

 nected with the society. The jury were 

 entertained to lunch at the Restaurant 

 Levoyen at whicli M. Viger presided 

 there being altogetlier about 150 

 guests, and the whole proceedings were 

 of the most cordial and hospitable 

 character. After the show was de- 

 clared open the band of the 119th In- 

 fantry Regiment gave a concert during 

 the afternoon. 



The promenade alongside of the 

 Seine leading to the entrance of the 

 first large greenhouse contained numer- 

 ous beds of chrysanthemums at inter- 

 vals and many displays of hardy trees, 

 conifers and shrubs, Messre. Brochet, 

 Lecointe, and Moser and Sons being 

 the principal contributors. Garden ac- 

 cessories in the way of pottery, 

 statuary, greenhouses, etc., were 

 numerous, and in addition there were 

 right and left many exhibits of trained 

 fruit trees in great variety. 



The chrysanthemums claim our 

 ehief attention and of all the exhibit- 

 ors Messrs. Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co. 

 must be awarded the palm for their 



is SIiuw. (U'iktmI ^'it-■^v of One of 



display was most remarkable and un- 

 questionably the grandest in the show. 

 Immense specimen plants were ar- 

 ranged in a series of geometrical beds 

 each with a grass edging and small 

 pompons in pot.'^ as a border. In the 

 middle of the whole was a grass lawn 

 with corner beds filled with dwarf, 

 large-flowered plants and a path 

 around it. In the middle of this lawn 

 was an immense trained specimen of 

 Tokio S or 9 feet in diameter. 



Another worthy exponent of the art 

 is M. Nonin who has for many years 

 past been noted as a raiser and as a 

 grower of .fine exhibition plants. This 

 exhibitor placed his plants in quite an 

 original form. It was in the shape of 



The r:iris Show. I'art of the- Vilmorin lv\hil.it. 



a hollow square with entrances near 

 the corners; in the middle was a \ons 

 rectangular bed with a pathway round 

 it thus enabling visitors to see either 

 from the inside or outside every bloom 

 in the collection. Ami Nonin, Ch. 

 Bacque, Duchesse d'Orleans, Sapho, W. 

 Duckhara. Naples. W. R. Church, Roi 

 d'ltalie, Enibleme Poitevin, Alexis 

 Dessarps, Mr. T. Carrington and 

 Triumphe de Montbrun were only a 

 few of the numerous varieties staged. 

 In the middle bed M. Nonin had some 

 large flowe,ed early .lapanese for which 

 certificates were granted. 



Somewhat nearer the entrance were 

 several large exhibits of plants in pots 

 from eminent cultivators, who are not 

 content to stage them in one group 

 but often place their collection in two 

 or three different places in the show. 



M. Cavron had two immense lots of 

 grafted standards and specimen plants 

 for which he was awarded the Grand 

 Frix d'honneur. Many of the varie- 

 ties were quite unknown to us being 

 purely French. Facing the entrance 

 was a large group of pot plants from 

 M. G. Magne. Some good flowers were 

 found here including many of the 

 Marquis de Pins' seedlings of the past 

 few years and others. 



We wander onward and now for a 

 moment pass into the second large 

 areenhouse, passing several things 

 which we must see again, for anxious 

 friends have directed us to a most 

 conspicuous object which towers above 

 everything in the show. It is a unique 

 floral artistic composition principally 

 of chrysanthemums by M. G. Truffaut, 

 a well known authority on horticul- 

 tural chemistry. We have seen some 

 artistic groups set up by big trade 

 growers in England but for striking 

 originality never anything to equal 

 this. Let the reader imagine a 

 rectangular grass lawn, in the middle 

 a perfect monument of colossal blooms 

 of chrysanthemum F. S. Valis mingled 



