104 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



tempted by the display of beautiful flowers, seen at this season 

 in our market places, to buy the plants for cultivation, in the 

 expectation of being able to reproduce the same sort of flowers in 

 their gardens or parlor windows. Ninety-nine of every hundred 

 such purchasers will meet with disappointment. Such plants never 

 reproduce such flowers, simply because these are hot-house pro- 

 ductions, got up to sell ; and the beauty of their beautiful bloom 

 effects the object, and answers the purpose of the producers, and 

 that is all they care for. They do not expect them to reproduce 

 the same beauty. If they did, it would spoil the trade. It is all 

 well enough for the admirers of flowers to buy the hot-house pro- 

 ductions, to gratify their love for the moment; but really, these 

 flowers in pots are of very little more value to you for future use 

 than a bunch of flowers done up in a bouquet. The buying of 

 these plants, and the attempts and failures to reproduce the 

 flowers, do much to discourage the cultivation of flowering plants. 

 It would be much more satisfactory to expend the same sum of 

 money that you would in buying the plants in bloom, for a good 

 assortment of flower seeds. There is no difficulty in getting 

 them anywhere that the mail travels, in a letter. If you will 

 buy plants, instead of seeds, go to an honest gardener, and tell 

 hiin what you want, or what result you want to produce, and 

 what sort of a situation you have to produce it in, and he will 

 give you a plant that Avill give satisfaction. 



Mr. Fuller corroborated this statement. He said that the 

 people of this city throw away $100,000 annually in buying these 

 hot-house plants while in bloom. The market is now full of the 

 most beautiful roseg, which sell at double the price of plants not 

 in bloom, and yet they are all a loss to the purchasers ; they 

 never grow and bloom again to satisfaction. 



Mr. Thompson, of Williamsburgh said that he had found 

 another difficulty in buying these hot-house plants, and that is 

 the insects that he got in the pots. 



Mr. Pardee remarked that we could not get some of the bed- 

 ding plants, such as verbenas, except we get them in pots. 



Mr. Fuller. — I do not object to buying a few small house plants, 

 or bedding plants in pots, but those should not be bought in 

 bloom. I do object to the practice of selling everything in 

 bloom, forced by hot-house culture, to people who will plant 

 them in open ground. 



Mr. Moody, of New Jersey, thought that here in the city we 



