April 5, 1913 



HORTICULTUEE 



513 



BALM IN GILEAD. 



Robert Craig is among tiie "silver 

 locks" now; yet liis smile and his an- 

 swer is as free and frank as ever. He 

 sees nothing in the recent decision of 

 the Supreme Court except the rout 

 of the lawyers and schemers! The 

 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 

 still stands on solid ground. They go 

 right back now to the William Schaef- 

 fer will. 



All that the building syndicate has 

 to sell is an unexpired lease of eleven 

 years. The past nineteen years of the 

 same lease — debit side. Why should 

 anyone pay them anything for the 

 eleven years to run? Nothing to it. 

 We are told that Rudolph Ellis and 

 others working with him, are trying 

 to mix things up and get control of 

 the property for little or nothing. It 

 looks as if the Supreme Court deci- 

 sion has put a quietus on all that. The 

 only thing that could help them would 

 be the death of the P. H. S. But Miss 

 SchaefEer, surviving legatee, took care 

 of that. Philadelphia Hospital — which 

 means City of Philadelphia — becomes 

 then the reversionary. 



The proper course for the trustees 

 under the Schaeffer will to pursue is 

 to put the society out of the money- 

 making class. Run the property as a 

 pure and simple institution for pro- 

 moting horticulture. The city ought 

 to endow it. but if it won't, get private 

 people to do so. At the least the city 

 should not exact taxation from a non- 

 mercantile institution. 



Frank Miles Day did some most 

 beautiful things. The Art Club Build- 

 ing for one. But he never did a finer 

 thing than Horticultural Hall. Fred- 

 erick Phillips said to me one day as 

 we walked down Broad street, "Stop! 

 I love to gaze on it a while. The 

 loveliest and most charming structure 

 in the whole world. Rome, Athens, the 

 East. Here we have it — the apotheo- 

 sis; and mighty few Philadelphians 

 have the sense to see it." 



I thoroughly agreed with Mr. Phil- 

 lips. Not only that, but I appeal to 

 Mr. Craig to see to it that Horticul- 

 tural Hall — the Prank Miles Day mas- 

 terpiece — is held for all time for the 

 ■city — like another Independence Hall. 



Ways and means can be found. 

 Prominent newspaper men 1 have 

 talked to are thoroughly in sympathy. 

 Men like them are trained to sense 

 public opinion. Public opinion is the 

 thing that makes us do things. When 

 everyobdy in a community wants a 

 thing — they get together and its done. 



All things considered, the best thing 

 to do with the Horticultural Society 

 is to put it on a purely educational 

 iDasis and demand not a fine In the 

 shape of taxation from the city, but 

 an endowment to help it carry on the 

 good work it has been doing for near- 

 ly one hundred years. 



And I, for one, have faith in the 

 good sense and good judgment of Rob- 

 ert Craig to feel that he will use that 

 wonderful personality of his in per- 

 suading the trustees to do exactly as 

 William Schaeffer said they should do 

 with the property — neither to sell it 

 nor to mortgage it. 



CATTLEYA X A. DIMMOCK. 



A few weeks ago we published a pic- 

 ture of the beautiful Cattleya Mossise 

 A. Dimmock, but, unfortunately, found 

 out too late that we had our descrip- 

 tion of it confused with some notes on 

 C. X A. Dimmock. Before making the 

 proper correction we waited until we 

 could secure a photograph of the lat- 

 ter. This we have now received through 

 the kindness of Mr. Clement Moore of 



Hackensack, N. J., at whose place this 

 interesting hybrid was raised, and an 

 engraving therefrom appears herewith. 

 Cattleya x Alfred Dimmock is a 

 cross between C. aurea and a very fine 

 form of C. Lawrenceana. The color is 

 intense and in size the fiowers are 

 midway between Aurea and Lawrence- 

 ana. The plant is a vigorous, almost 

 rampant, grower and promises to be a 

 very free bloomer. 



Of course, if another syndicate 



comes along and wants to lease the 

 building under conditions — that's a 

 different thing. We would much 

 rather see the city take the matter up. 

 And don't forget that the "city" means 

 you and me and Jim and Sue and 

 every one of us. We get in the habit 

 of thinking, "Well, the city ought to 

 do it." and forget that ourselves and 

 others like us make the city, and the 

 compelling force must come from us 

 in the first place. 



The interior arrangements of the 

 hall are just as beautiful, poetical and 

 artistic as the outside. No change 

 should be made on them. They are 

 a dream of beauty in every way. 



Geo. C. Watson. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



The April meeting of the Indiana 

 State Florists' Association will be held 

 with W. Frank & Sons. Portland, in- 

 stead of at Anderson, Ind., with Stuart 

 & Haugh, as previously announced. 



SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN. 



We were wandering around that very 

 attractive North London park, pre- 

 sented to the inhabitants by Sir Syd- 

 ney Waterlow some years ago and 

 called by his name when we came 

 across an old-fashioned herbaceous gar- 

 den, the occupants of which were near- 

 ly done for, so far as the year 1912 

 was concerned. It is intersected by 

 cross-paths and at the corner of the 

 junction we read a tablet upon which 

 appears the following: 



"This garden contains the herbs and 

 garden plants mentioned in Shakes- 

 peare's works." 



The reader will observe it does not 

 say "all" or "some" but simply "the" 

 herbs and garden plants. Now if we 

 take Beisley's "Shakespeare's Garden" 

 we shall find, excluding trees and 

 shrubs, probably more than fifty herbs 

 and garden plants. Canon Ellacombe 

 in "The Plant Lore and Garden Craft 

 of Shakespeare," gives as many or 

 perhaps even more if we could dissect 



