HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



1511 



over the field was still recommended; and in 1799 

 James Anderson's "Essays on Quick-lime as a Cement 

 and as a Manure," was given an American edition 

 in Boston. It is easy to see from these facts that 

 the fundamental conceptions of the science of agricul- 

 ture were vague and crude a century ago. Near the 

 close of the last century, Deane wrote that "the alarm- 

 ing effect of the present low state of husbandry is, 

 that we are necessitated to import much of our food 

 and clothing, while we are incapable of making propor- 

 tionable remittances in the produce of the soil, or in 

 anything else." 



Green's book on flowers, published in Boston in 1828, 

 enables us to determine what were the leading orna- 

 mental plants in that early day. The full title of the 

 book is "A Treatise on the Cultivation of Ornamental 

 Flowers; Comprising Remarks on the Requisite Soil, 

 Sowing, Transplanting, and General Management; 

 with Directions for the General Treatment of Bulbous 

 Flower Roots, Greenhouse Plants, etc." It comprises 

 only sixty pages. The introductory pages give general 

 directions, then follow two annotated lists, one of 

 annuals and biennials and the other of greenhouse 

 plants. These lists are interesting, also, for what they 

 do not contain. All the plants they mention are here 

 set down, under the names and with the spelling there 

 employed: 



ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL FLOWERS. 



Althaea frutex. 



Almond, double-flowering. 



Amaranthus superbus. 



Amaranthus tricolor. 



Animated oata. 



Aster, China. 



Auricula. 



Azalea nudiflora. 



Box. 



Brier, Sweet. 



Canterbury Bell. 



Carnation. 



Cassia marylandica. 



Catalpa. 



Cherry, double-flowering. 



Chrysanthemum indicum. 



Clematis, Austrian (C. integ- 



rifolia). 

 Clethra. 

 Columbine. 

 Convolvulus. 

 Corchorus japonicus. 

 Crocus. 

 Cupid's Car, or Monk's Hood 



fAconitum). 

 Dahlia. 

 Daisy. 



Dwarf Basil. 

 Egg Plant. 

 Eupatorium, blue. 

 Euphorbia Lathyris. 

 Fading Beauty, or Morning 



Bride (Scabiosa). 

 Fir (Pinus balsamea). 

 Foxglove. 

 Fringe Tree. 



Geranium (Pelargonium). 

 Garden Angelica. 

 Glycine, cluster-flowering. 

 Golden Coreopsis. 

 Golden Everlasting (Xeranthe- 



mum, lucidum). 

 Hollyhock. 

 Honeysuckle. 

 Hyacinth. 

 Hydrangea. 

 Ice Plant. 



Impatiens Balsamina. 



Iris. 



Lagerstroemia indica. 



Laurel, broad-leaved (Kalmia 



latifolia). 

 Laburnum. 

 Larkspur. 

 Lilac. 

 Lily. 

 Lime Plant (Podophyllum pel- 



tatum). 



Lychnadia (Phlox). 

 Mezereon (Daphne mezereum). 

 Mountain Ash. 

 Musk Geranium. 

 Myrtle, evergreen (Vinca minor). 

 Narcissus. 

 Nasturtium. 

 Passion Flower. 

 Pseony. 

 Pea, sweet. 



Peach, double-flowering. 

 Pink. 



Perennial Sunflower, double. 

 Polyanthus. 



Pyrethrum parthenium. 

 Poppy- 

 Purple Hyacinth Bean. 

 Roses. 



Rose Acacia. 

 Rose-colored Hibiscus. 

 Rudbeckia. 

 Scarlet Cacalia. 



Scarlet Lynchis (L. chalcedonica). 

 Siberian Crab. 

 Snow-ball Tree. 

 Snpwberry. 



Spice-wood (Laurus Benzoin). 

 Spiderwort (Tradescantia). 

 Spiraea. 



Syringa, or Mock Orange. 

 Strawberry Tree (Euonymus). 

 Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis). 

 Sweet William, or Poetic Pink. 

 Tulip. 



Venetian Sumac, or Fringe Tree. 

 Violet, blue fragrant. 



GREEN HOUSE PLANTS. 



Lilies of the valley. 



Ranunculuses. 



Anemones. 



Single and Double Jonquils. 



White Lilies. 



Roses. 



Tuberoses. 



Persian Iris. 



Mignionette. 



Verbena trifoliata, or Sweet 



Vervain. 

 Fuhsia coccinea. 

 Cobsea scandens. 

 Camellia japonica, or Japanese 



Rose. 

 Myrtles (Myrtus communis). 



These lists are much less ample than those of M'Ma- 

 hon, over twenty years earlier, but they may be sup- 



posed to include the popular and most easily grown 

 things. They will be suggestive to those who wish to 

 make "old-fashioned gardens." M'Mahon's list was 

 evidently largely compiled from European sources. 

 Green says that the first list (strangely called "annual 

 and biennial flowers") contains "such plants, shrubs 

 and trees as are of easy cultivation, generally hardy." 

 The second list comprises "a few different sorts of 

 green house plants" "which are commonly grown in 

 rooms." 



The early writings clearly portray the tendencies of 

 the floricultural interests, from the formal-flower 

 ideals of the dahlia and camellia to the enormous devel- 

 opment of the cut-flower interest, and the growth within 

 the last few years of the greater love of plants them- 

 selves. Palms and decorative plants are now almost 

 household necessities, whereas seventy-five years ago 

 they would have been luxuries. "There has been a radi- 

 cal change in the character of the flowers used for cut- 

 flower purposes," wrote Alfred Henderson in 1895. 

 "Fifty years ago, camellia flowers retailed freely for a 

 dollar each, and during the holidays Philadelphia used 

 to send thousands to New York florists, getting $500 

 per 1,000; while roses went begging at one-tenth these 

 figures. Now, the rose is queen, and the poor camellia 



finds none so poor to do her reverence I 



confidently believe that the time is not far distant 

 when we shall compete seriously with the foreign 

 grower in the production of new varieties of roses." 

 William Scott, of Buffalo, in 1900 made the following 

 comments on floriculture: "About the year 1880, tulips 

 and narcissuses began to be forced, and during the 

 next fifteen uears immense quantities of these bulbs 

 were imported annually from Holland. As the methods 

 of forcing were perfected the market became over- 

 stocked, and, although large quantities are still forced 

 for the winter and spring months, they are not now 

 in the same favor as formerly, and the rose, carnation, 

 violet, lily-of-the-valley and mignonette are still the 

 favorites. Orchids are not yet the flower for the mil- 

 lion, but there is a yearly increasing demand for them, 

 and at present the showy orchids, such as the Cat- 

 tleyas and Laelias, are far short of the demand. As 

 their cultivation is more generally understood, we look 

 for a very steady increase in the number grown, and 

 are confident that the supply will not soon exceed the 

 demand. Within the past five or six years a marked 

 increase is noticeable in the use of plants to adorn the 

 home, and the demand is for an expensive class of 

 plants, palms, dracenas, araucarias and ferns being 

 among those mostly used. Now few homes with any 

 pretension to luxury or even comfort are without a few 

 fine plants scattered through the rooms, and many of 

 our modern houses are provided with either a bay 

 window or small conservatory for the accommodation 

 of plants." (See Cut-Flower Industry and Floriculture.) 



America has not been favored with horticultural 

 annuals to the extent equally with England and other 

 countries. The first attempt of the kind seems to have 

 been Woodward's "Record of Horticulture," edited by 

 A. S. Fuller, which appeared in 1866 and 1867. The next 

 venture was the "American Horticultural Annual," 

 New York, for the years 1868 ,1869 and 1870, under the 

 general editorial care of George Thurber. The attempt 

 was not made again until the "Annals of Horticul- 

 ture," was issued by Bailey, in 1889, and which was 

 published for five years, the last volume containing an 

 account of the horticulture of the Columbian Exposition. 



Fruit-growing in particular. 



Horticulture, in its commercial aspects, was nothing 

 more than an incidental feature of farm management 

 at the opening of the century. In fact, it is only in 

 the past generation that the field cultivation of horti- 

 cultural crops has come to assume any general impor- 

 tance in the rural economy of the nation. And even 



