Progress of Horticulture for 1845. 7 



and other brilliant families, which are seldom seen on account 

 of the skill required in their growth. 



The tree and herbaceous pseonies bid fair to rival the rose 

 in their numberless kinds. It is many years since the old 

 double-red was first introduced ; and, until within six or 

 eight years, all the fine double sorts, and those only few in 

 number, were imported from China. But the skill of the 

 French and Belgian florists has achieved wonders, and the 

 old Chinese varieties will soon exist only in name. Even our 

 own cultivators are about to bear away the palm, several 

 very beautiful seedlings of both the tree and herbaceous 

 kinds having been recently produced, and some of the latter 

 excelling any we have yet seen. 



Two tribes now demanding the attention of every culti- 

 vator, are the hardy rhododendrons and hardy azaleas — both 

 natives of our own climate, and growing indigenous, too, 

 almost within the limits of our gardens ; yet we are indebted 

 to foreign cultivators for all the fine varieties we possess. 

 We shall not let a year pass by without impressing the im- 

 portance of attention to these favorites, until we see efforts 

 made to render ourselves no longer dependent for new varie- 

 ties. Our notice of the magnificent collection of Messrs. 

 Waterer, near London, covering nesulj ffty acres, will, we 

 trust, infuse new zeal into every amateur and' commercial 

 cultivator. 



The two accounts we have given in the last volume, of the 

 grand exhibition of the London Horticultural Society, cannot 

 but have been read with great interest. How gorgeous must 

 have been the array of the miscellaneous collection which 

 bore off the large gold medal ! Will our cultivators not take 

 a hint from this, and resolve that their efforts shall be 

 directed to the same noble purpose 1 And will not our horti- 

 cultural societies require more at the hands of their exhibi- 

 tors than merely the bare display of some few plants of ojie 

 single tribe ? We have passed by that stage of the science 

 to rest satisfied at this ; for there is little skill in this simple 

 object. Rather let every ambitious cultivator show what 

 the results of application and well directed labor to the 

 science are; that it does not consist in aiming at novelties, 

 but to the attainment of perfection in the growth of all those 



