1896.] TRANSACTIONS. 13 



individual should be obliored to forego his anticipated monopoly. 

 Our usual Aveekly displays clearly indicate the line that we 

 should draw between the Exhibition that instructs and the mere 

 show that misleads and perverts. For a dozen weeks, in 

 unbroken sequence, the fiiirest flowers of Summer are displayed 

 upon our tables by our Members, who enjoy and desire no 

 especial advantages in their culture, asking but a fair field and 

 no tavor in the struggle for floral preeminence. Pansy, Iris 

 Germanica, Rose or Paeonia ; Dianthus or Lilium, in their mani- 

 fold forms; Iris Ktempferi, Petunia, or Hollyhock; Clematis, 

 Antirrhinum, Gladiolus, or Sweet Pea ; Aster, Nasturtium, 

 Dahlia, and Perennial Phlox ! can we not find adequate scope 

 for our energy and skill, adorning home and farmstead and 

 bringing those charming, rugged species to their extreme excel- 

 lence, without wasting substance and time in forlorn competi- 

 tion with the Florist whose greenhouse is his point of insupera- 

 ble vantage, and who either grows the plants for his livelihood 

 or hires a gardener to do it for his private gratification ! All 

 such are welcome to persevere, if they like, but as for us. Horti- 

 culturists, let us temper zeal with discretion, nor voluntarily 

 fool away our time in a hopeless struggle with the vicissitudes 

 of climate and the infinite fecundity of Insects. What have we 

 lost by omitting hot-house grapes from our Schedule? Do not 

 Brighton, Delaware, and Worden, the Rogers' Hybrids in their 

 almost countless variety, more than supply the place of those 

 costly rare exotics? Let us abandon a field wherein we can 

 never be at home, leaving it to the wealthy amateurs of Boston 

 and New York with an assurance of our best wishes, and in full 

 conviction that so can we best serve our own interests and 

 advance the cause of genuine Horticulture. The copious harvest 

 from an ample Orchard is far better than a few choice specimens 

 culled, after extreme labor and pains, from the Gardens of the 

 Hesperides. The first supplies the market and ministers to the 

 hearty, wholesome appetite of the community at large. The 

 latter feebly tempt the languid cravings of the wealthy, whose 

 surfeited life allows but a morbid hunger ; and in whom natural 

 taste and relish are destroyed by their customary methods of 

 pampered nutrition. 



