THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Mr. Samuel Untermyer, an annual member, made application 

 for a life membership. The application having been approved 

 by the society, the secretary was authorized to cast an affirmative 

 ballot for his election. This was done and the applicant was 

 declared elected a life member of the society. 



The resignation of Mr. Wilhelm Miller was accepted with' 

 regret. 



There being no further business before the meeting, the lecture 

 announced for the day, " The Botany of some Autumn Flowers," 

 was delivered by Dr. N. L. Britton, who illustrated his remarks 

 with numerous colored lantern slides. The following is an ab- 

 stract of this lecture: 



The carnation or gilliflower, Dianthus Caryophyllus, was first illus- 

 trated. The speaker referred to it as a native of Europe and western 

 Asia, and remarked that Theophrastus, about 300 B.C., had bestowed upon 

 it the name " Dianthus," meaning " flames of love." It has been in cultiva- 

 tion for over 2,000 jears, but it was not until the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century that it was broken into many varieties. The original flesh- 

 color was broken up, and the reds and whites resulted. These were the 

 early attempts at carnation cultivation, and represent a type or race which 

 is grown mainly in Europe, and but little in this country. The perpetual 

 flowering type, the cultivated carnation of to-day, originated about 1840, 

 and is represented by many examples in the exhibition now in progress. 

 Its introduction into this country was about 1868. The first of this type, 

 procured by M. Delmais, \\as called Atim, and was sent out about 1844; 

 it was produced by the artificial crossing of Oeillet de Mahon, or St. 

 Martin, with Oeillet Bihon. The stems of these early forms were weak, 

 but finally M. Alphonse Alegatiere by careful crossings obtained varie- 

 ties with stiff stems, and it is these which are the carnations of to-day. 



Passing to the rose, the speaker opened this subject with an illustration 

 of the China rose, Rosa indica, a native of China and eastern India, 

 explaining that it was the blood of this rose which had given the per- 

 petual blooming qualities to the roses of the present day, which arc largely 

 made up of the Hybrid Tea forms; these were illustrated with colored 

 slides of Pink and White Killarney, Bridesmaid, My Maryland, Perle des 

 Jardins, Bride, and Richmond. This Hybrid Tea rose is the result of 

 crossing two other hybrid groups, the Hybrid Perpetual and the Tea- 

 scented. The former group was the result of crossing the Damask rose, 

 Rosa damascena, a native of Syria, with the Hybrid China rose, the 

 first step being the production of the Damask Perpetual. This was not a 

 really satisfactory perpetual, and the Hybrid Perpetual, as we know it 

 to-day, was produced by the crossing of the Damask Perpetual with the 

 Bourbon rose, a race originating in the Isle of Bourbon, said to be from 



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