■ 885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



not be thought of. This is precisely our view. It 



should not be, nor is it thought of in these days by 

 the best class of exhibitors. But the trouble is 

 that those who get up expositions think differently. 

 They act on the belief that all that is necessary to 

 bring out a grand exhibition is to get out a splen- 

 did premium list, and, after advertising that - 



thousands of dollars will be awarded in premiums 

 they think their work is done. 



But exhibitors want more than this. They 

 want appreciative and discriminative awards made 

 by those in whose superior judgment the world at 

 large has confidence. 



If B. has something that he knows is superior to 

 anything ever before seen in his line of business ; 

 knows that there will be judges capable of appre- 

 ciating this point and who will say so ; knows that 

 the exposition will take trouble to publish this fact 

 for him far and wide, he will exhibit, and the 

 people will flock to see, and be willing to pay to 

 see these best specimens of the world's skill. But if 

 it is to be but a grand collection of ordinary mer- 

 chandise, a bazaar, a mere mart where the people 

 are simply to be brought together to buy and to 

 sell, a mere question of ordinary "business" as 

 our correspondent puts it, the average man will 

 not send. He can make more money by spending 

 the amount of cost in personal efforts in his 

 own office, with the ordinary advertising machin- 

 ery, than by going so far away. 



Still another illustration of what we mean: — 

 recently there was a spring meeting of the Penn- 

 sylvania Horticultural Society. One of our re- 

 porters gave in our magazine a detailed account of 

 the superior merits of the articles exhibited. Letters 

 have come to our office saying that that notice 

 was of far more benefit to the exhibitors than all 

 the " premiums," or all praises of the visitors who 

 saw the things themselves. Now we contend that 

 this discriminative work should not be left to a 

 chance reporter. It should be the work, and at 

 the cost, of the societies themselves. Let them 

 honor their worthy exhibitors by an exposition of 

 their excellences, while the exhibitors do their 

 work by the exposition of their goods. — Ed. G. M.] 



FLORAL NOTES FROM NEW ORLEANS. 



BY M. H. LESTER. 



If you think I am getting troublesome, bear 

 with me this once. I do not think I shall write 

 again for some time. The thermometer as I write 

 is 90° in the shade at my door, and I often catch 

 the shameless thing 4° or 5^ worse than that. 



Mosquitoes have been here for some time — "every 

 one as big as a shrimp " — and anyone that can 

 write much under those circumstances must be 

 gifted with more patience than has ever fallen to 

 my lot. 



Another celebrated amateur, D. T. Brown, Esq., 

 of St. Louis, has been here. Mr. Brown is also 

 one who is not in a hurry when he gets in among 

 good plants. He likes to walk around them, and 

 look at them. He says a good specimen palm is 

 worth a wagon load of flowers. Mr. Brown se- 

 cured probably the best specimen of a Cycas 

 revoluta in the U. S., from Maitre & Cook, nursery- 

 men here. [We should like to know how large 

 was this specimen, as some Philadelphia conser- 

 vatories may want to contest this. — Ed.] 



Mr. John Rock, of San Jose, California, left here 

 a few days ago well pleased with his visit. Mr. 

 Rock was awarded several hundred dollars in 

 money premiums alone, but it is just as likely as not 

 he will never apply for the money. Mr. Rock 

 donated his entire exhibit for the benefit of this city. 

 If the city government decide to beautify the ex- 

 position grounds there are enough plants donated 

 now to make it a perfect paradise in three or four 

 years. 



At Horticultural Hall the fruit exhibit has dis- 

 appeared like magic ; and with parties removing 

 their exhibits, etc., the place is all topsy turvy. I 

 notice among the orchids Schomburgkia tibicina 

 and S. Lyonsii in bloom ; also Stanhopea tigrina 

 lutescens. 



My Osmunda Japonica corymbifera and Ksmp- 

 fera Gilbertii, commenced to look bad last fall, so 

 I threw them under the bench. I found them 

 again in March, and shook them out and gave 

 them a clean pot with peat and sand and good 

 drainage. They are two of the prettiest plants I 

 have now in 5-inch pots. Those plants have been 

 figured or editorially noticed, I forget which, in 

 the Monthly already, and may be otherwise 

 familiar to some of your readers. 



I have a famous piece of Osmunda regalis fenced 

 in in a shallow corner of the pond, where the 

 roots keep cool and moist all the time. The first 

 Lotus this season, Nelumbium speciosum, opened 

 June 2d ; there will be flowers now every day until 

 frost. 



With regard to the portion of Mr. Boomkamp's 

 letter in the Monthly for June, that refers to my 

 notes from here, allow me to say that no exhibit was 

 or could be in better condition than that of the 

 " General Bulb Co." at the time Mr. Boomkamp 

 left h£re. 



