December 14, 1918 



HOKTICULTURE 



57!) 



FLORICULTURE AT CORNELL 

 UNIVERSITY. 



With the signing ot tlie armistice 

 the work of the Department of Flori- 

 culture is rapidly coming back to its 

 lormer status. When war was de- 

 clared, many men students specializ- 

 ing in floriculture joined the colors 

 and the classes have been composed 

 almost entirely of women students. 

 The staff of instructors was also very 

 much depleted, practically all having 

 been engaged in some form of war 

 service. 



Early in January, 1918, E. C. Volz, 

 instructor, resigned to become Direc- 

 tor of School and Home Garden Work 

 in Michigan. In February, E. A. 

 White was relieved of his duties at 

 the College to take up the organiza- 

 tion and supervision of School anil 

 Home Garden Work in Western New 

 York. This work was continued until 

 July 1, 1918. July 1st M. E. Farnham, 

 instructor, was called for service and 

 was stationed at Camp Sevier. S. C. 

 At the same time Miss L. A. Minns 

 was given leave of absence that she 

 . might supervise the greenhouse and 

 garden work at the Carnegie Institute 

 for Experimental Evolution at Cold 

 Spring Harbor, N. Y., thus relieving a 

 man for war service. In September, 

 Mr. C. L. Thayer, instructor, was 

 called for service and is now stationed 

 at Fort Adams, R. I. During the fall 

 Professor David Lumsden has been 

 teaching the S. A. T. C. in meteoro- 

 logy. Dr. A. C. Beal was granted a 

 sabbatic leave of absence for the year 

 19181919, which he is spending at 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



During the last four weeks many of 

 the former students have expressed 

 a desire to return to their work in 

 floriculture and plans are being made 

 to begin all tlie courses December 

 30th. The College curriculum has been 

 put on a four-term basis, and the work 

 will continue throughout the summer. 

 Thus a student who had completed 

 the work of his junior year may re- 

 turn and talte up his studies Decem- 

 ber 30th and graduate in October, 

 1919. Practically all of the teaching 

 force will be available for the begin- 

 ning of the new term. During the 

 war the educational work in floricul- 

 ture has been retarded fully as much 

 as has the work of commercial flor- 

 ists. The members of tlie department 

 have accepted the conditions in the 

 same loyal spirit of devotion to the 

 country's best interests as have the 

 commercial men. When the ruling of 

 the fuel administrator regarding the 

 fifty per cent, coal supply for green- 

 houses became effective, one half of 

 the glass areas of the College of Agri- 

 culture were closed. In the Depart- 

 ment of Floriculture the rose and car- 

 nation houses and a third house for 

 miscellaneous plants were closed, the 

 palm houses and the cooler houses 

 for sweet peas and other plants being 

 retained. The feeling of those In 



charge of the administration ot the 

 work of the College was that the Col- 

 lege should adjust its work to meet 

 the requirement ot the Fuel Adminis- 

 trator in the same spirit as did the 

 commercial florists. 



It is the belief of all those in the 

 department that with the coming of 

 peace the educational work in floricul- 

 ture in all American institutions will 

 rapidly resume the important position 

 it occupied before the war. Our 

 young men are coming back with a 

 greater relization of the advantages 

 offered by American schools and col- 

 leges, and there is no question but the 

 floricultural industry will immed- 

 iately feel the effects of the ending 

 of the war anl that a period of pros- 

 perity is before U. 



E. A. White, 

 Dept. ot Floriculture. 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



An account of the donation to the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden by Mr. D. 

 S. Brown, of orchids, ferns, palms, etc. 

 was given in the May, 1918, number of 



view in Fern House at Missouri Botanical 

 Gnrclen 



the Bulletin. At that time it was 

 stated that Mr. Brown's giift placed 

 the Garden in possession of the most 

 complete collection of orchids in the 

 United States, comprising, exclusive 

 of the cypripediums, 691 species. 

 Recently Mr. Brown has decided to 

 present to the Garden the remainder 

 of his orchid collection consisting of 

 cypripediums and selenipediums and 

 including many rare and beautiful 

 specimens which could only be dupli- 

 cated with the greatest difficulty, if at 

 all. Through the generous public 

 spirit of Mr. Brown the Missouri Bo- 

 tanical Garden will now be able to 

 display these wonderful plants as 

 never before. 



In exchange for a duplicate collec- 

 tion of vandas and nepenthes, Joseph 

 Manda, West Orange, New Jersey, has 



contributed to the Garden a valuable 

 collection of brassocattleyas, cattleyas, 

 and laeliocattleyas. These plants are 

 recent hybrids from rare types which 

 will add greatly to the orchid displays. 

 Among them the albino variety of 

 Lacliocattleya Canhamiana and the 

 brassocattleyas, noteworthy for their 

 extremely large, fringed lips, stand 

 out most prominently. 



The entire collection of orchids now 

 at the Garden includes 1,235 species 

 and varieties, which, with many dupli- 

 cates of the more common forms, 

 makes a total of 5,732 plants. 



URGES LESS USE OF LAUREL. 



Less use of laurel for Christmas dec- 

 oration is urged by the Society for 

 the Protection of Native Plants. In 

 a statement issued Dec. 4, the society 

 says : 



"The mountain laurel is one of our 

 most beautiful native shrubs, both 

 when covered with its wonderful 

 masses of pink and white flowers in 

 early summer and during the rest of 

 the year on account of its rich foliage. 

 Being an evergreen, which very few of 

 our native shrubs are, it makes a 

 striking feature in a winter landscape. 



"Laurel is a typical feature of our 

 New England woods and pastures, and 

 it should be our pleasure and duty to 

 protect it from destruction: But its 

 very beauty and charm induce cutting 

 to an alarming extent. It is gathered 

 extensively twice a year. In summer 

 the flowers are taken for church and 

 house decoration. In winter the in- 

 roads are especially extensive and 

 dangerous. Enormous quantities are 

 then used for festoons, wreaths, etc., 

 in Christmas decorations. As it is 

 then cold weather, the foliage keeps 

 well, and bears transportation to a 

 distance, so that the quantity collected 

 is only limited by the demand and the 

 available material. It is to be noted 

 that this cutting is all from wild lauf 

 rel growth, not from plants which are 

 grown for this purpose, although it is 

 a shrub easily cultivated. 



-The flowers are borne only upon 

 the shoots of the previous year's 

 growth, so that, if these are cut, a 

 year's flowering is lost; and, when 

 looking at long festoons of laurel 

 leaves, it is saddening to think of the 

 great quantity of blooms that have 

 been destroyed for the next summer 

 in this truly extravagant winter deco- 

 ration. 



■Care for the future often involves 

 sacrifice in the present. Therefore, 

 can we not forego some decoration for 

 the sake ot preserving for the enjoy- 

 ment of future generations the beauty 

 of our woods, swamps and pastures 

 where the laurel now grows?" 



