National and Edncafioiial Interests. 147 



overcomes the tendency to sterility so often observable in 

 bulbous rooted growths, both wild and tame ; while it is upon 

 their use that we must largely rely in our endeavor to augment 

 the size and improve the tints of flowers. Administer them 

 sparingly the first year and increase the quantity as the plants 

 show themselves thriving under it. Flowers thus treated will 

 become neutral minded as to soils, much sooner than will 

 those grown in naturally constituted earth. 



'' Of our wild flowers the majority are perennials. All such 

 should be kept from seeding until they evidence themselves 

 thoroughly well established. The maturing of seed is a strain 

 on the strength of a plant, which, under unaccustomed con- 

 ditions it cannot be trusted to survive, and should only be 

 compelled to undergo when, as in annuals and biennials, the 

 seed is necessary to the continuance of the species. 



" Another caution which every one should observe is to give 

 the wild growths room, so that they will neither be encroached 

 upon by prior occupants of the garden nor require to be 

 checked or maimed lest they crowd too closely upon one another. 

 American wild flowers are characterized by singular fineness 

 and delicacy of leaf growth. It would be difficult to name a 

 really superior variety the foliage of which is coarse or rank. 

 But should any transplanted flower take so kindly to its new 

 home as to spread overfast, there is but one safe method of 

 reduction — uprooting. It is a too common blunder of amateur 

 florists, pushed for space, to temporarily chasten the exuber- 

 ance of their spring flowering perennials, by cutting down to 

 the ground at the end of the blooming season, but the blunder 

 is one which they generally have cause to rue. Only exception- 

 ally tenacious lived plants bear to be thus deprived of their 

 breathing apparatus, and those which do outlive it are always 

 weakened as to leafage and paled and impoverished as to 

 bloom." 



In this connection it is interesting to notice that Professor 

 T. J. Burrill, of the Illinois Industrial University, has started a 

 movement to induce the Illinois Central Railroad to take 

 measures to preserve the native flora along its lines. 



Societies. Horticultural organizations are rapidly increasing 

 in number and extending in usefulness, especially those of 

 a trade or semi-trade character. The national conventions of 

 the year w^ere seven in number, as follows : Columbian Horti- 



