Horticulture at the World's Fair 



By Charles W. Miles. 



A splendid idea in miniature of what the Panama- 

 Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915 

 will look like from the gardener's standpoint may be had 

 from the picture that is presented by the Service Building 

 at the Exposition grounds, the first of the World's Fair 

 buildings to be erected and occupied. 



The Service Building is now surrounded with growing 

 trees and blooming flowers of vari-colored beauty such 

 as will be the dominant note of the whole E.xposition 

 when it opens on February 20, 1915. 



It is proposed that the Exposition shall be set in a 

 garden, and at this date, more than eighteen months 

 before the opening day, an army of expert gardeners, 

 under the direction of the famous landscape gardener, 

 John C. MacLaren, the builder of the Golden Gate Park 

 at San Francisco, are at work preparing for the floral 

 display that shall astound the world. 



Millions of bulbs and plants and flowers have been im- 

 ported to San Francisco from various parts of the state 

 and from foreign countries and a selection of these have 

 been used in the decoration of the Service Building. 

 The building is fronted by a grass lawn, surrounded 

 with beds of geraniums, while bordering the walls of the 

 building are beds of multi-colored flowers — fuchsias, 

 gladiolas and pansies and roses, interspersed by rhodo- 

 dendron trees and eucalyptus and cypress. 



The color scheme of the Exposition has been designed 

 by Mr. Jules Guerin, the most famous color artist in 

 America, whose fame abroad is as wide as it is at home. 

 ]Mr. Guerin has been assisted by ]\lr. ]\IacLaren and his 

 army of gardeners. When the doors of the Exposition 

 open, it is promised that the courts and promenades and 

 boulevards, which are to be a feature of the celebration, 

 will be fully planted with flowers and trees to be renewed 

 through the seasons, in order to maintain a continuous 

 glory of color and freshness, from February to December. 



Along the waterfront of the main group of e.xhibit 

 palaces, which will hue the bay of San Francisco, will 

 he a wide boulevard to be known as the Marina. This 



will be traversed by -four avenues of trees, pines, 

 eucalyptus, cypress and redwoods and at either end of 

 this broad promenade will be vast beds of flaming color, 

 alternating from week to week from red to blue, from 

 orange to violet and from green to white. .A. more com- 

 prehensive display of the floral beauties of nature has 

 never been made than that which is to be the main 

 feature of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. 



The general decoration of the E.xposition grounds is 

 to be part of the exhibit of horticulture. The Depart- 

 ment of Horticulture, which is one of eleven departments 

 into which the exhibits have been classified, is under the 

 direction of Mr. George A. Dennison, one of the fore- 

 most authorities on e.xposition horticulture in the West. 



The department will be housed in a palace of glass 

 surmounted by a dome under which trees from all coun- 

 tries will be exhibited. Tropical and sub-tropical fruits 

 and flowers will lie brought to the Exposition from all 

 parts of the world and will be shown side by side, to 

 give the horticulturist an idea of the different methods 

 that are employed for the cultivation of different plants 

 under different conditions. 



The finest e.xhibii of orchids that has ever been brought 

 together is promised from Honolulu. There will be roses 

 from America and Europe, bulbs from Holland and all 

 kinds of remarkable growths from Japan, while some 

 of the most prominent floriculturists in several European 

 countries have promised to send exhibits of the best of 

 their productions for competition with the rest of the 

 world. 



.\ trophy, valued at $1,000, is offered by the Exposition 

 for the best rose of a new kind that is created for the 

 e.xhibit. The winning rose will be named in commemora- 

 tion of the Exposition which is being held to celebrate the 

 Iniilding of the Panama Canal. 



There will be other prizes offered by the Exposition 

 and by various horticultural societies of America, and it 

 is expected that the value of the prizes and the signifi- 

 cance lit tlie e\"ciil itself will ^erve as an inducement to 





HORTUTl.rrK \l. I'.UILDING FOR THE P.V.NA.MA I'ACliqC INTKRN ATIONAI. EX rOSITlo.N' — 650 n 295 FEET. 



