ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE AT THE WORLU'S FAIR. 201 



The Columbiau Medals are not likely to be valued so liighl}' by 

 their recipients as they might have been had they been less freely 

 awarded, or had they been so designed as to indicate degrees of 

 merit. A medal for a rare and skillfully grown plant or group of 

 plants, loses most of its significance as soon as it becomes known 

 that it differs in no respect from that given for a collection of wire 

 designs, a plant sprinkler, or a wreath of dried mosses. It is true 

 that in the diplomas accompanying the medals, points of excel- 

 lence in exhibits are carefully noted, but the diploma can never 

 take the place of the medal as an award to be striven for, and it 

 is a question whether it would not have been much better if the 

 time-honored plan of gold, silver, and bronze medals, to indicate 

 degrees of superiority had been adopted at Chicago. 



In conclusion, it is pertinent to inquire whether that branch of 

 American Horticulture which we have been considering is today 

 any further advanced than it would have been had the Fair not 

 taken place, and whether a grand opportunity to present our art in 

 its proper light before millions of visitors has been taken advan- 

 tage of to the fullest extent. Horticulture's grand possibilities 

 never recovered from the unseemly wrangle and delay at the start,^ 

 and many of the unfortunate features which j^our essayist has 

 called attention to, at the risk of making a reputation as a fault- 

 finder, were directly traceable to this fact. It is gratifying to note 

 the long step forward made by Ornamental Horticulture in the 

 independent position secured for it as a separate department. In 

 this it sought and obtained nothing more than its just and rightful 

 recognition, which was inevitably bound to come soon in any 

 event. Therefore, while we may regret that much more was not 

 accomplished, yet we should be grateful for what was achieved, 

 not forgetting that mistakes are educators and serve their purpose 

 as well as successes, provided we recognize and honestly acknowl- 

 edge them as such, and that only in the future can the full results 

 of the great exhibition be justly estimated. 



Discussion. 



Clarence E. Grosvenor expressed much disappointment in the 

 Horticultural Exhibition at Chicago. That department was far 

 inferior to what was promised. The roses shown at the Paris 

 Exposition greatly exceeded anything seen at Chicago ; indeed, 

 the exhibition made by the rose growers of the United States at 



