HORTICULTURAI, SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



raisers, and in your trade catalogues at this time a few of these are found 

 but their source of origin is unannounced. When the crimson rambler and 

 Winchuriania rose reached our shores some dozen years ago, they were 

 seized upon by many cultivators, were blended, and an entirely new 

 race of what may be called rambler hydrids was originated. 



In these days of much closer relations and interchange of commerce be- 

 tween the two nations, it is not without interest to measure up the standards 

 by which the one judges the production of the other. The American horti- 

 culturist is dintinctly exacting: he looks for a combination of superlative 

 qualities. The mere fact that a plant is new or a variety distinct from others 

 that aref already known does not give it one extra bit of value. The standards 

 are ultra-utilitarian. We want all our flowers to measure up highly in all 

 their attributes, and a test of commercial value is applied very severely in 

 all cases. As a matter of fact it may be acknowledged that the American 

 horticulturist, the American florist, is engaged in catering to an uncritical 

 public. Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't wish you to infer that I am 

 stating that the great American public does not exercise judicial qualities in 

 its appreciation of plants and flowers. What I do mean to say is that a 

 flower is measured for itself, for the purpose to which it is to be put, and 

 not merely against its associates for distinctiveness. In other words, we 

 are not breeding for connoisseurs. The keynote of appreciation is selection, 

 not collection. Where the European florist will grow twenty, fifty, or a 

 hundred varieties, his American prototype will find that he can supply all 

 the needs of the public by growing not more than half a dozen. Why? be- 

 cause there is room for only one red rose that is best from all points, one 

 pink, and so on. Whereas, in agricultural plant breeding the idea in view is 

 the raising of varieties that shall not succumb to disease that shall be hardy 

 above the usual limit of that kind of plant, or that shall be particularly re- 

 sistant tod rought; so in the florists' fold we look for a plant or flower that 

 shall be extraordinarily productive of flowers, the flowers themselves of per- 

 fect form, of pure color, that will mix with the majority of others without 

 producing colour discords; and in decorative plants we look for pure efifects, 

 clear-cut colour schemes, and nothing of the intermediate lower grades. 

 In ornamental plants, for instance, I may take as an example the highly 

 decorative Pandanus Veitchii, which with its beautiful bands of colour may 

 be regarded as an ideal in its type. The colour scheme of this plant is in 

 harmony with the general contour of the whole and the arching of each 

 individual leaf. On the other hand, the spotty effect of the variegation in a 

 plant like Dracenea Godseffiana is not pitched in the same artistic plane, and 

 does not appeal with equal force. 



Pure colour are much sought for. Variegated flowers are regarded 

 with less favour each year, and, with the exception of Carnations, may be 

 practically ignored as commercial possibilities, and even in that flower their 



45 



