198 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



able appearance was finally secured. The horticulturists of these 

 States applied for and received the share, to which they were 

 fairly entitled, of the liberal appropriations made by their legisla- 

 tures, and then took hold with a will to help out the management. 

 Can any words of condemnation then be too severe for the neglect 

 of proper supervision, the bad judgment, the ingratitude, which, 

 after the hall had been filled, largely through the generous action 

 of distant States, permitted it to be desecrated by cheap lemonade 

 stands and peddlers of knickknacks, soap, and candy? 



Let us now consider the displays made in the name of the 

 various States and foreign countries. Unfortunately but few of 

 these were worthy of passing notice. The West did almost 

 nothing ; Illinois, which should have been first, was conspicuous 

 by the absence of any respectable endeavor on her part, the sur- 

 roundings of her State Building, even, being a most miserable 

 attempt. Outside of New York and Pennsylvania, no State 

 exhibit of any great pretensions was made. Between these two 

 there was a strong effort for supremacy. The character of the 

 exhibits made by these states, many of the plants contributed 

 having been cultivated within their borders for the past forty 

 years, showed that for a generation, at least, horticulture has had 

 a strong foothold there, and their public spirited action is entitled 

 to all praise ; and of Ontario's exhibit this may be said with equal 

 truth. 



But I believe that the principle followed in these instances was 

 not the best. Suppose, that instead of Japan's faithful represen- 

 tation of native gardening processes, Mexico's curious cacti. New 

 Zealand's wonderful tree ferns, and Holland's grand collective ex- 

 hibit of hardy azaleas and rhododendrons, these countries had con- 

 tril)uted merely a diversified exhibit of greenhouse plants, what a 

 loss in interest and educational value the horticultural department 

 would have suffered. The enterprise and rivalry of individuals 

 engaged in the trade might safely have been depended upon for 

 miscellaneous displays of plants, from all quarters of the globe, 

 but States should have taken advantage of the opportunity to 

 set forth their own native resources and localized industries. 

 What an exhibit Massachusetts might have made, for instance, 

 with a naturally jilanted collection of her native flora. A bit of 

 meadow, a rocky hillside, gay with innumerable species of shrubs 

 and wild flowei's, from tlie first pussy willow and hepaticas of 



