60 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



specimens, they are out of date, and are discarded or neglected as old 

 fashioned. This may seem a severe view, a harsh statement of facts, but 

 it is literally true. 



If we look at plants with the eye of the botanist, the simplest weed be- 

 comes invested with the highest interest ; and to the botanist the rarer and 

 newer plants are objects of special attention ; but his task, or rather pleas- 

 ure, differs from that of the florist; tlie botanist %vould turn away from the 

 most beautiful double flower ever produced, regarding it as a monstrosity. 

 But we are not writing for botanists, — with us they are few and far be- 

 tween ; but for gardeners, amateurs, and florists, who esteem a plant rather 

 for its flower, foliage, growth, and other obvious beauties, than for its struc- 

 tural adaptations, be tliey ever so curious and beautiful. 



If our amateurs will grow fewer plants, and grow these few well ; if they 

 will discard the mass of rubbish, for it is nothing else, which cumbers the 

 stages of their greenhouses, and grow their plants with plenty of room, 

 light, and air, the evil will be remedied. 



We do not now speak of this to practical gardeners, — to those who look 

 upon their flowers as their means of support; they will not grow fine 

 plants, and with reason, — they cannot aflford it. Every available spot in their 

 greenhouses must be filled with plants which will produce the most flowery 

 they care nothing for the shape of the plant ; to force the most bloom from 

 it is their object ; and their greenhouses most generally present a ragged 

 and used-up appearance ; the plants supply their bloom, are then thrust 

 aside to make room for others, which in their turn bloom and are thrust 

 aside. Under this treatment we do not wonder the plants are never well 

 grown and seldom healthy ; our only surprise is that they bloom at all. 



There is another class of gardeners whose business is chiefly the sale of 

 plants, and to whom the trade in flowers is merely a profitable adjunct. 

 By these, some few specimen plants are grown, but usually less from any 

 desire to raise a fine specimen as such, than from a hope thus to dispose of 

 their large stock of young plants by showing how much can be done if 

 care and attention are bestowed. 



To neither of these classes would we direct our remarks ; though both 

 may sometimes grow fine specimens for exhibition, either with the hope of 

 surpassing tlieir neighbors, or of profit pecuniarily from prizes. We do 

 not intend to say that all gardeners look upon flowers as mere objects of 

 profit, and have no love for the subjects of their care ; far otherwise, for we 

 know well many cases where the love of the occupation is the chief mo- 

 tive ; we only say that the tendency is to exalt the end and degrade the 

 means. 



But with amateurs the case is far different. They profess to grow plants 

 for their beauty, not from any profit to be derived from them ; and yet with 

 this their avowed object, their greenhouses seldom present a more respecta- 

 ble appearance than those of gardeners who profess nothing. 



But it may be said, amateurs need the flowers for their own use, and 

 tljie^fore must grow plants to produce the most bloom. If this is so, let 



