34 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The famous nursery of Louis Van Houtte at Ghent, still shows 

 the work of his master mind, although he has been at rest from 

 his herculean labors for eight years. Large ranges of greenhouses 

 are still filled with plants, and long frames and beds are full of 

 hardy perennials, but the energetic mind that expanded a small 

 business into an immense one world-wide in its influence, and 

 which did so much scientific work of a literary sort in his beloved 

 art, is no longer directing the business. Here were once grown 

 great numbers of those bright hybrids of our own Azalea calendu- 

 lacea — the so-called Ghent Azaleas — and they were sold at prices 

 that brought them within the means of all. Only a few are now 

 grown there, but they are still grown for the trade almost wholly 

 in Holland, and at very low prices. 



One thing at Van Houtte's struck me as very touching. The 

 various foremen of the different departments, with whom I 

 inspected the nursery, all spoke of their late employer in a tone of 

 reverence as " The Master," which was evidently sincere and as 

 if the}" still felt his powerful personality. 



I saw at this place, also, several assortments of plants in full 

 leaf, being packed to go to such far off places as New Zealand, 

 Australia, and also to America. All the material used for packing 

 was very clean and new, and the whole work showed very great 

 experience and great manual dexterity. An eye to the appearance 

 of the whole was always had and the number of bulky plants that 

 would disappear into a given crate or box was wonderful to see. 

 I learned that these packers had never done anything else in their 

 lives but pack up plants, and some were greybeards. Surely we 

 have much to learn in our American nurseries ! 



One fact is instructive in this connection. The}- expend far 

 more money in Europe on packing than we do, and European 

 patrons pay it wilUngly as the cheapest part of their bill. Some 

 American buj'ers will not do so yet, but I fear we nurserymen 

 have a duty to do in teaching our customers the value of better 

 packing by doing better packing. I noticed everywhere that 

 the common workmen in these nurseries get nearer to their work 

 than ours do here. They are more painstaking and more exact in 

 all the many details of nursing seeds and cuttings into healthy 

 trees. They get down on their knees far more than our men do, 

 and as their opportunities for switching off into some other busi- 

 ness are not so numerous, as in this land of opportunities, they 



