THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Horace D. Lyon, Mrs. J. Woodward Haven, Airs. G. L. Morgen- 

 thau, and Airs. Edwin AI. Bulkley. 



The secretary was authorized to cast an affirmative ballot for 

 all of the above persons. This was done and the persons de- 

 clared elected. 



The resignation of W. E. Connor was accepted. 



There being no further business before the meeting, the lecture 

 announced for the day was delivered by Air. Robert Pyle. This 

 was entitled " Among the Roses in Europe," and was copiously 

 illustrated with lantern slides. 



The lecture was as follows: 



Among the Roses in Europe 



After some 7,000 miles of travel, seeking out the beauties of the rose 

 and the secrets of growers of roses abroad, it was as if with a new vision 

 for America and American rose gardens that I sailed into the harbor here 

 some eight months ago; and right here at the gateway to our country 

 occurred a little incident about which I want to tell you. Mrs. Pyle and I 

 had disposed of the formalities of the efficient customs officials and in a 

 taxicab were just emerging from the wharf on to the broad sunlit street, 

 when right at the gateway we were saluted by an officer with this greet- 

 ing " Welcome to our city." For some reason this seemed to send a thrill 

 of pleasure through my breast and I thought to myself " Surely a city 

 (big as is this) that is careful to look after such little courtesies on the 

 part of its public servants, such a city has in store an equal welcome for 

 the message which I feel I have brought back from Europe." It is this : 

 that " you in New York and in your surrounding parks and estates cer- 

 tainly may have and should have rose gardens as fine and flourishing as 

 those I saw in Paris, in southern France and Germany, to say nothing 

 of the gardens of England and Ireland." So this afternoon I ask you to 

 go with me through the public gardens and the nurseries, and meet the 

 growers and the men who are producing the new varieties so much sought 

 after by the rose-loving public everywhere. 



Our first visit was to the old rose growing center of Colchester. A few 

 minutes' walk brought us to the nursery of D. Prior & Son, where the 

 men were already in the field making roses ready for the coming shows. 

 A half mile away are Benj. R. Cant & Sons, among the largest of the 

 growers, I think, in England. They report 100,000 tree-roses in 200 differ- 

 ent varieties; they had sixty men at work on fifty acres, with a very inter- 

 esting trial garden showing not less than four or five hundred varieties, 

 the most of them blooming luxuriously. They were also growing climbing 

 roses under glass, even in July. Rose growing seems to run in families. 

 Nearby is the establishment of Frank Cant & Co., another many-times 



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