68 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETr. 



each hides the defects of each, and a staging full of these ugly, ill-grown 

 plants may often present a fine appearance. But this is not the true end to 

 be gained in floriculture ; in this way we can never approximate to perfec- 

 tion, — the evil grows year by year. 



Of what plants are our collections composed ? Plants from every region 

 of the globe, all huddled together in a space not large enough generally to 

 grow those of one country to perfection. A small house some sixty feet 

 long will be found to contain a collection of Camellias which flower and 

 grow best in a temperature not above sixty degrees ; — Ericas, which require 

 about fifty degrees of heat ; Azaleas, which will bear any high dry tempera- 

 ture ; Cape plants, which need a different treatment from any of the above ; 

 Acacias, Oranges, Geraniums, Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Tropseolums, Be- 

 gonias, Cyclamen, Ixias, Sparaxis, Oxalis, Amaryllis, Roses, and hundreds 

 of other plants, dissimilar in habits and nature ; — all requiring a different 

 treatment, each needing its peculiar atmosphere and temperature; and 

 often a few sickly orchids or other stove plants, with yellow leaves and 

 sickly aspect from want of proper heat, thrust in to fill up the spaces be- 

 tween the larger pots, — all these are crowded into one small house. Is it 

 to be wondered that none ever reach perfection ? that all are more or less 

 diseased ? that the flowers are poor, and the plants sickly ? Can we ex- 

 pect it to be otherwise ? 



None will deny the beauty of a specimen plant, let the kind be what it 

 may ; and its superiority over an ill-grown plant, let the latter be ever so 

 rare in variety. The public eye is attracted by symmetrical beauty, and 

 not by novelty in variety. To the common observer a well -grown speci- 

 men of the almost forgotten Fuchsia globosa is far more beautiful than 

 some new and rare plant, which presents no symmetry of proportion. 



We Avould, by no means, discourage the taste for new plants ; it is a 

 healthy tendency, but may be carried too far. If we neglect all our old 

 favorites, or give up well-grown, valuable plants for others of unproved 

 merit, simply because the latter are new, the passion for novelties becomes 

 a disease, and produces bad effects in practice. There is in this, as in all 

 other things, a happy medium, which alone is the safe course ; either ex- 

 treme will lead us into error. 



The passion for novelties, or any injurious effects arising therefrom, one 

 would naturally suppose would be confined to amateurs, simply because — if 

 for no other reason — it can only be indulged in by those whose pecuniary 

 means are ample. 



But this is not the case ; we find our gardeners exerting themselves 

 to meet any demand for new, rare, and expensive plants, to the neglect of 

 our old and well-tried favorites. 



There are certain plants which are, so to speak, standards, — we cannot 

 do without them. Of this class are the Camellia, Daphne, Lauristinus, 

 Orange, and many others. An orange flower will be as much esteemed an 

 hundred years hence as to-day ; so will a daphne, or a double-white camel- 

 lia, let floriculture make what progress it may. But there are other flowers 

 which are fast being lost to our greenhouses. 



