114 



PACIFIC STATES FLORAL CONGRESS. 



tropical plants are discoursed upon in the terms of protection and arti- 

 fida t mperatures. How to grow tender plants in the open air, and 

 how to Zw the hardy plants of the north amid the new environment of 

 "he sen" ropical situations, are questions which writers experienced m 

 Ihese undertakings should demonstrate. Vastly more and better work 

 would follow fuller information in such matters. 



In this matter of adequately developing the semitropical element m 

 English horticultural literature, California has both an opportunity and 

 a duty Every individual should do his and her full part, either in 

 writing with clearness as to cultural details, with honesty and truth as 

 to limitations, and with due appreciation of the spirit of the effort. 



LU llllii i/cx I/A vyj-i^j lAij-i-v, _ . 



poets and artists may be trusted to seize their opportunities; it is the 

 more labored and yet not less significant prose of scientific inquiry and 

 practical operation which should be encouraged and promoted, becaus 



it will aid others to an understanding of the materials, agencies, ami 

 methods involved in the highest type of gardening which our climate 

 favors. To this end it is desirable that floral societies should be organ- 

 ized and that their members should put forth untiring effort in garden 

 culture and experiment, in essay and discussion, and in exhibition of 

 their best achievements. 



California is finely-equipped to make a splendid contribution to sub- 

 tropical gardening, and is thus prepared to discharge in some measure 

 the debt which the present owes to earlier civilizations. We have re- 

 ceived from all the world an endowment of skill in floral arts and floral 

 sentiment. In the ranks of our varied and enlightened population we 

 have plant-lovers and culturists from the whole breadth of the Old 

 World, from Ireland eastward to Japan. We have those who have heard 

 flower lore in all the tongues of men. Nowhere on the earth is there 

 such a gathering of devotees to floriculture. We have also the choicest 

 plants from the utmost confines of the planet. To these legacies we add 

 American aptness, skill, and ingenuity ; beneath them all, our soil ; above 

 them all, our sky. Where in the world should the art of floriculture 

 attain higher development or produce grander masterpieces? 



But to attain such ends we must advance a step beyond ordinary 

 dooryard gardening. Such gardening usually ends just at the begin- 

 ning of skill in growing, of discrimination in selecting and admiring, 

 and of depth in appreciating. A person can possess an ordinary, con- 

 ventional garden without any particular fervor or intensity of interest 

 in it. He has the general consciousness that it is trim and neat and 

 nice to have. It is only when one begins to look the flowers straight 

 in the face and note their particular characters that knowledge of them 

 really begins. Then Avhen the first lesson in flower-loving is taken, the 

 longing for more knowledge, more skill, and truer "floriculture takes 



