ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE AT THE WORLD's FAIR. 199 



spring time, all through a range of floral loveliness that for vari- 

 ety and beauty can be excelled nowhere, down to the last purple 

 aster of autumn ! 



If you would learn whether the people are interested in such 

 things, look over in that further corner of this hall any Saturday 

 afternoon next summer, and see them crowd about the little wild 

 treasures collected from the woods and fields. Let the display of 

 roses, orchids, and lilies be ever so gorgeous, you will always find 

 that corner holding its own. 



It may be asked whether the advocacy of such a course is not 

 detrimental to the interests of Commercial Floriculture. I say 

 Floriculture will never suffer because a love of Nature is inculcated 

 by her followers. The onl}^ reverses ever sustained by Commercial 

 Floriculture have been when it has shown a tendency to part 

 •company with Nature and drift into paths of excessive artificiality. 



" This thou shouhlst know, who from the painted feature 

 Of shifting Fasliion, couldst thy bretliren turn 

 Unto the love of ever-youtliful Nature, 

 And of a beauty fadeless and eterne." 



In the old fashioned garden connected with her State building 

 Massachusetts rose to the full height of her opportunity. This 

 ■was one of the gems of the Fair. It was, as Mr. W. R. Smith 

 truly said, "well conceived and elegantly carried out." 



In considering the competitive displays in the different classes, 

 the first point claiming our attention is the provision made for this 

 department. As before suggested, the various buildings intended 

 for these exhibits should have been constructed with direct 

 reference to their future contents, but they were not. Had this 

 been done, we should have been spared the painful sensation of 

 seeing rare and delicately reared tropical specimens, gradually 

 chilling to death from standing for months on the cold floor under 

 the same roof and in the same atmosphere with tough, hardy and 

 half-hardy plants. The exhibitors on the Wooded Island were 

 well provided for while the spring weather lasted, but the porous 

 soil of which this artificial ground was of necessity constructed, 

 and the shameful neglect of proper provision for watering during 

 the hot summer season, made havoc with the herbaceous plantings 

 at the time of the greatest attendance of visitors. Nevertheless, 

 the "Wooded Island was a most attractive spot, and through its 



