REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS. 333 



with single stems, and which contained many good blooms, is in 

 reality a vegetable house, but is used in summer for a few cut- 

 bloom varieties. If not as well adapted for the purpose as could 

 be desired, it does quite well, and affords a good opportunity to 

 test novelties and grow some seedlings. 



As a grower, the best evidence of Mr. Hatfield's skill is the fact 

 that for six years in succession, his plants have received the first 

 prize at the Annual Exhibitions. 



Waban Rose Conservatories, Natick. 



The Committee visited this place while the chrysanthemums 

 were in bloom, and at their request, Mr. Alexander Montgomery, 

 the gardener, has given the following notes on some of the newer 

 varieties of Chrysanthemums : 



Among the many brought out this year are the following : 

 Eugene Dailledouze, H. L. Sunderbruch, Major Bonnaffon, 

 Mutual Friend, luter-oceau, Waulass, Mrs. J. G. lis, etc. A 

 gratifying point about the new varieties this year is that many of 

 them are good either for exhibition or market purposes. 



We grow about eight thousand plants, mostly to specimen 

 flowers, and find them fairly profitable ; probably more dollars 

 are realized from the square foot of this crop than would be from 

 smaller flowers ; but were many others taking in the same quality 

 of flowers there would hardly be a market for them. Still, as an 

 advertisement for the smaller flowers, they are indispensable, as 

 chrysanthemums would never command the public attention 

 they do were it not for the fine large flowers. A small flower 

 of Eugene Dailledouze, or Mrs. Jerome Jones, would never attract 

 special attention, but see them in their glory and the veriest 

 rustic, and the most learned professor, will alike take off their bats 

 and stand enraptured before them. Therefore, I say, we must 

 have a proportion of the very finest flowers that can be grown : 

 and our hybridizers have yet great room for improvement. "We 

 have size enough. Attention must now be given to finish ; bright, 

 clear colors — the ideal pink has yet to be presented — and size 

 without coarseness. I predict that the next few years will see 

 still greater improvement than heretofore, both in varieties and 

 their cultivation, and the man who now "knows it all" will then 

 stand amazed to find himself such a Rip Van Winkle in this 

 march of progress. 

 9 



