NOTES ON EUROPEAN NURSERIES. 31 



tion also probably helps some of them, and the familiar handling 

 of plants from early youth under their fathers' tuition. 



These nurseries are also extremely interesting to Americans 

 from their past achievements, whose benefits we have all shared, 

 and this strikes us with new force when we come to see the places 

 where, for instance, such things as the so-called Ghent Azaleas 

 were first produced, or the Hybrid Rhododendrons, or the Tuberous 

 Begonias, or many other things that we use and enjoy. Most of 

 these nurseries have nothing in the way of location or landscape 

 to make them attractive ; the whole interest is centred in the 

 plants grown there, or the great works of the past, by which 

 some addition has been made to the world's riches or happiness. 

 Such gardens are the real " gardens of Eden " to my mind, where 

 plants are created and set round about ; but the men who do 

 these things are the part of the stud}' that most engages one's 

 mind in going over some famous nursery. 



They are always genial and even a little enthusiatic with those 

 of like tastes, but always keen-eyed eager students of plant life, 

 and withal practical business men. And how very differently they 

 go to work to get new plants. 



One, lil^e M. Transon of Orleans, France, will collect every kind 

 of tree and plant that is hard}' in France and of any commercial 

 value, from all the world over, and plant them in such amazing 

 quantities as to have covered three hundred acres with beds four 

 feet wide, containing millions of young plants, from three inches 

 to three feet high. All our own best native shrubs and trees 

 stand there in incredible numbers, and are all sold while quite 

 small at prices incredibly low. More than five thousand dollars 

 are paid yearly for seeds by this house. 



I had often wondered whether the young trees received from 

 them at such ridiculously low prices, were grown without any care 

 or cultivation to save expense. The truth is they receive the 

 most painfully perfect cultivation. 



Now among these multitudes of seedlings are detected, by the 

 lynx-eyed gardeners, here and there, individuals differing more 

 or less from the type. These are planted in test grounds and 

 most of them thrown away later on as undesirable, while occasion- 

 ally one will prove a valuable new variety that we should all covet. 

 Then also in these immense numbers of trees many " sports " are 

 noticed — yellow foliage or some abnormal growth on a single 



