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HORTICULTURE 



April 9, 1910 



Headquarters for SPRING BULBS 



Begonias, Caladiums, Cinnamon and Madeira Vines, Cycas Stems, Iris Roots, Cannas. 



250 VARIETIES DAHLIAS 



We are headquarters for Dahlias and can supply every worthy sort ; highest quality 

 at lowest price. 



Our selection best commercial sorts. $1.00 per Dozen. $8.00 per 100 



Gladioli by the 100 thousand, Japanese Lilies, Tuberoses. Fern Balls. 

 Everything in bulbs, seeds, plants and horticultural supplies. Our catalogue will 

 interest you. Send for copy to-day. Lowest wholesale prices for good goods. 



Henry F. Michell Company, 



518-1018 Market St., 

 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



"PROFANING THE ROSE." 



A horticulturist of California, where 

 horticulturists are habitually dissatis- 

 fied with nature and seek to befuddle 

 her, has so confused the rose bush 

 that it has dropped to the unaesthetic 

 level of the pea vine and the musk- 

 melon. A climbing rose at Berkeley 

 has produced an edible fruit, simulat- 

 ing the flavor of the pine apple, allied 

 to the loganberry which it will in 

 course of time, we are told, supplant. 

 We assume that this fruit is as free 

 from thorns as the modern, familiar 

 kitchen brand of codfish is free from 

 bones, and perhaps more so. We as- 

 sume that it is not a prey to the 

 homely and determined rosebug. We 

 assume that its similarity to the pine- 

 apple does not extend to its oppres- 

 sive taxation of the human digestion. 



Such inventions (or perversions) as 

 this, however, we cannot welcome as 

 blessings. In an age of utilitarianism, 

 when the cold and unfeeling motor car 

 has encroached on the field of the 

 poetic though hungry horse, and when 

 the linen ruffle has in some instances 

 given way to the celluloid collar, each 

 additional assault on the temple of 

 unalloyed and useless loveliness must 

 be met with caution and even oppo- 

 sition. The things of life which are 

 yet allowed to remain merely orna- 

 mental are already too few. They in- 

 clude the violet, the rubber plant, the 

 angora cat, the canary, the democratic 

 party and Halley's comet. In time 

 these things, and others, will be taken 

 from us. The rubber plant will pro- 

 duce erasers, the violet will bear ber- 

 ries, comets will run mills and the 

 democratic party will produce states- 

 men. The age of beauty follows 

 swiftly after the age of chivalry into 

 oblivion, and unrelieved utilitarianism 

 crowds in, like a man beating seven 

 women to the only seat in the street 

 car. 



Who wants to pick loganberries or 

 imitation pineapples from a climbing 

 rose bush? Does the useful though 

 woody pineapple seek to bloom in 

 rose-like gorgeousness? These triflings 

 with fine-garbed nature are menacing 

 the little altruism left in sunshine and 

 showers. It Is enough that sweet corn 



has come from a weed, and that we 

 neglect the white flowers to dig the 

 roots from under the potato; enough 

 that we have fallen upon and eaten 

 the ornamental love apple of our 

 grandmother's day; enough that the 

 flowering bean and the sweet pea are 

 less esteemed than the marrow-fat 

 and the cranberry, lima, string and 

 kidney; enough that we cast aside the 

 yellow, sun-like blossom to pickle and 

 preserve the hard root of the Jerusa- 

 lem artichoke; enough that we brutal- 

 ly beat and eat the dried remains of 

 the fragrant flowering buckwheat. Let 

 the rose, at least, be free from this 

 taint of the less refined appetite. 



It is well enough to pervert the 

 unkempt cactus to food-and-drink uses, 

 or to take liberties with the soulless 

 prune, or to issue an official cook book 

 filled with poisonous directions how to 

 make the masses of round steak be- 

 lieve they are the classes of porter- 

 house. Leave the rose to bloom in 

 innocence and inedible distinction. 

 Let the moss rose gather no moss, let 

 the tea rose remain cheering and 

 not inebriating, and let the ramblers 

 ramble, care free and useless.— 

 Boston Advertiser. 



PERSONAL. 



George Golsner of College Point, N. 

 Y., will start on a European visit about 

 June 1. 



John Miesem and wife, of Elmhurst, 

 N. Y., are booked for a European trip] 

 June 1st. 



Robert Armstrong is now head gar- 

 dener for the Realty Syndicate, Oak- 

 land, Calif. 



A. N. Pierson of Middletown, Conn., 

 sailed for Europe on April 4 for a va- 

 cation of two months. 



David Miller, formerly of West Rox- 

 bury, Mass., has accepted a position as 

 gardener to H. C. Pierce, St. Louis, 

 Mo. 



Joseph Proval, a florist of Brooklyn, 

 was to have sailed for Europe last 

 week but the trip is indefinitely post- 

 poned owing to the visit of a burglar 



who entered Mr. Proval's home on 

 Clarkson street and made off with 

 $1000 in cash. 



N. D. Gachor, for 28 years proprie- 

 tor of the Broad St. Station, Philadel- 

 phia, Flower Stand, retired from busi- 

 ness March 31st. 



Mr. Brice, formerly for eight years 

 florist at the University of lUiuois, 

 has taken a position with Adden, Mor- 

 gan Co. in Paxton, 111. 



Louis Hayet is now head gardener at 

 Waller's Gate, River Forest, 111. Mr. 

 Hayet was formerly foreman for A. J. 

 Lanternier & Sons, Fort Wayne, Ind. 



Visitor.s in Boston: Lee Whitman, 

 Yonkers, N. Y.; Arthur Zirkman and 

 Robt. Shoch, representing M. Rice & 

 Co., Phila.; Winfried Rolker, New 

 York. 



A. A. Tracey has moved to Wenham, 

 Mass., from Somerville to take charge 

 of the bulb department of the gladio- 

 lus farm of his brother, B. Hammond 

 Tracy, at Cedar Acres. 



Visitors in New York: Alex. Dallas, 

 Waterbury, Conn.; Frank Witney, 

 Fishkill. N. Y.; A. H. Wingett and A. 

 J. Loveless, Lenox; Mr. Etherington, 

 Stockbridge, Mass.; H. G. Eyres, Al- 

 bany. 



A. WcMeans, head gardener at the 

 Experiment Station, Vegetable Depart- 

 ment, Agricultural College at Guelph, 

 Ont., has gone to the Agricultural Col- 

 lege in North Dakota to take a similar 

 position. 



Robert E. Miller started from East 

 Brookfield, .Mass., last Thursday for 

 Salt Lake City tc erect two large rose 

 houses at Farmington, Utah, the ma- 

 terial for which will be supplied from 

 Chicago. 



John H. Taylor, of Bayside, N. Y., 

 is contemplating an extended trip 

 abroad and has published for sale at 

 auction on April 14 and 15, the entire 

 contents of the family mansion which 

 he has so lo.i.g occupied. 



