October 15. 1910 



HORTICULTURE 



533 



HOLLAND. 



<Abstracts from an address before the Flor- 

 ists' Club of Philadelphia by R. 

 Vincent, Jr.) 



Mr. Vincent's address began with 

 some historical references to the valor 

 of the people of Holland and their pa- 

 tience and industry in bringing the 

 land once water-covered. Into subjec- 

 tion and maintaining fertile smiling 

 plains where once the sea rolled. 

 Speaking of Haarlem, he said: 



It is curious to watch the throng 

 of men and women during the bulb 

 flowering season some on bicycles with 

 enormous red, yellow and purple fes- 

 toons of flowers on their bicycles, a 

 sash of them bung around their necks 

 and their hats trimmed, forming a 

 curious picture as they glide along. 

 Again others in carriages carrying 

 hugh bouQuets, all seeming to delight 

 in cariying flowers, which are to be 

 obtained from vendors for a mere 

 trifle. All the way from The Hague 

 to Haarlem, if one was without the 

 small trifle where with to purchase, 

 the courteous bulb grower would will- 

 ingly make anyone a present of all the 

 blooms he, or they might want. It is 

 the roots he wants, not the flowers. 

 They have to employ men to pick the 

 flowers off and cart them, or boat them 

 off to the manure pile. The word cart 

 is rather a misnomer, in this case, as 

 the boat is the Dutchman's cart. The 

 admiration which one cannot but ex- 

 press as he views the brilliant patches 

 of bright yellow, dark red, showy pur- 

 pip, pure white, and bright blue with 

 here and there the green hedges which 

 are used as wind breakers, with the 

 everlasting carals, makes a panorama 

 that can only be viewed in Holland. 

 Indeed, a visit to the bulb fields while 

 in bloom will never fail to please, as 

 it is always intensely impressive. 



After recounting some of the fea- 

 tures of the famed tulip craze, Mr. Vin- 

 cent continued: 



It was about the end of the seven- 

 teenth century that some Haarlemers 

 exported bulbs to other countries for 

 the first time, and they thenceforth 

 became known as Dutch bulbs. 



We visited a place near Haarlem 

 where in the commencement of tulip 

 growing the first new varieties of tu- 

 lips were raised — or, more practically 

 speaking, the original home of the 

 tulip is Holland. These grounds have 

 now been crowded out by buildings for 

 homes, but there is still much to in- 

 terest one in the quaint portion still 

 left iu the heart of a built-up section. 

 We saw here a bed of seeding Narcis- 

 issi that will show to the world what 

 can be accomplished in a small area 

 with intelligent skill and study as to 

 what is possible in a flower. Of the 

 Mansion House that was on this tract 

 only a small portion remains, as it has 

 been added to and rebuilt by the sev- 

 eral generations that have gone before. 

 But the story that is told about this 

 estate and the tulip industry Is rather 

 entrancing. Tulips, however, are not 

 all the plants that are largely grown 

 in Holland. There are many others — 

 Spireas, Tuberoses, Bleeding Heart, 

 Iris, Rananculus, Anemones and many 

 others. 



Narcissi are increasing favorites, and 



wonderful fields can be seen in Hol- 

 land in all their golden glory, and 

 when in full bloom appear as a beau- 

 tiful sunrise. That yellow has been the 

 predominating color in these flowers 

 is not saying that it will continue so 

 always, as white has been brought for- 

 ward rapidly during the past few 

 years, and I look to see red yet become 

 one of the standard colors. Pour hun- 

 dred varieties were exhibited in vases 

 at the Hanrlem show. These are flow- 

 ers of which every one should have a 

 few varieties in the garden. They will 

 stand neglect better than a good many 

 others. In fact, the Narcissus could 

 be called the lazy man's or lazy wo- 

 man's flower. 



Mr. Vincent closed with an earnest 

 appeal to his fellow-members to plant 

 these bright flowering bulbs in such 

 quantities as to rival the beautiful 

 flower-decked fields of Holland, the 

 finest color picture the world has ever 

 had. 



A CALIFORNIA CARNATION. 



The accompanying picture shows 

 Richard Diener, Colona, San Mateo 

 County, Cal., with a seedling carnation 



bearing fiowers of unusual size. 

 Our informant states that the flowers 

 on this plant measure SVs inches in 

 diameter. The stem, as shown in the 

 illustration, is over 3 ft. in height. He 

 says further that the calyx parts pap- 

 aver fashion, and the lower petals 

 stand out straight as in a gardenia, 

 which would indicate, we should say, 

 relationship with the Malmaison type, 

 but the parentage is given as Enchant- 

 ress X Prosperity. The color is white 

 with occasional red stripes and the 

 flower is very fragrant. Mr. Diener 

 received a silver cup from the Pacific 

 Coast Horticultural Society for his 

 seedling carnations, geraniums and 

 dahlias. We hope his carnation and 

 other prodigies, about which the Cali- 

 fornia daily papers have had consider- 

 able to say, will "make good." 



THE SPENCER TYPE OF SWEET 

 PEAS. 



(Abstract of a Paper read before the Am- 

 erican Seed Trade Association at At- 

 lantic, by W. Atlee Burpee.) 



Taking a walk in the early morning 

 of May 31st, around the village of Lom- 

 poc. 1 was so impressed with the fact 

 that while there were acres of the 

 finest Spencers grown in that beautiful 

 valiey, both upon our own and other 

 feed farms, yet nearly all the sweet 

 peas in the village gardens were of the 

 old grandiflora type. I determined 

 then that if time would possibly allow 

 before your Convention I would cer- 

 tainly try to say something that might 

 help increase the enthusiasm for this 

 wonderful new race of Gigantic Or- 

 chid-flowered sweet peas. 



In considering how I could best 

 say anything to still further advance 

 the growing interest in. sweet peas 

 of the Spencer type I picked up 

 the book about sweet peas published 

 this year by my friend, Walter P. 

 Wright, of England, and upon reading 

 his introductory remarks felt that no 

 words of mine could so well express as 

 he has done, the wondrous beauty of 

 tiie seedlings of Countess Spencer. 

 With your permission, therefore, I 

 shall first quote from Mr. Wright: — 



"It was Henry Eckford who made 

 the sweet pea the great flower that 

 it is. He delighted amateurs with 

 new and beautiful colors and with im- 

 proved form. He enlarged the flower 

 and added grace, substance and sym- 

 metry to it. It was loose — he gave it 

 legularity. It was flimsy — he made it 

 solid. It was ragged — he knit it to- 

 gether. The standard was badly 

 notched — he went a great way to fill- 

 ing the gap up. But mark you, he did 

 all this without robbing the flower of 

 its fragrance. If he had done that — 

 but why speculate? He did not; he 

 kept it as sweet as he found it. 



"Eckford did so much that there 

 really seemed little more to do when 

 he drew towards the close of his busy 

 and beneficent life. But the sweet pea 

 was ever a secretive flower, and at 

 last, when the secret of her loves, 

 so long held inviolable, had been 

 wrested from her, when all about her 

 seemed known, and when a hundred 

 beautiful daughters surrounded her — 

 then she laid down another card. 



"Something came with a vengeance, 

 but it was not the buttercup yellow, 

 nor yet the Gentian blue. It was not 

 the development of color at all, but of 

 form. We gasped in sheer amazement. 

 This astonishing flower had made an 

 absolutely new, revolutionary, cata- 

 clysmic, prestidigitatory, thaumaturgic 

 change in the form of its standard. 

 Left comfortably smooth and flat by 

 Eckford, it suddenly threw a variety 

 with a standard that was heavily 

 waved or crinkled. 



"A waved standard! And with It 

 increased size of flower! A crinkled 

 standard in itself might not have van- 

 quished us, for it might have meant a 

 flower of shrivelled and meagre ap- 

 pearance; but Nature seemed to have 

 resolved to carry her new sweet pea 

 scheme through thoroughly, and in- 

 creased the material in the petal to 

 allow for the folds. 



"The waved flower reigns. While 

 my pen flows along the paper in shap- 

 ing these words, the thought crosses 

 my mind, has the sweet pea other rev- 



