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15J0 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



iikt 11. 1905. 



in^ the people to buy land wortli 

 $2,000,000. It is a remarkable example 

 of the fact that a good bargain bene- 

 fits all parties concerned and reminds 

 one of the famous dollar bill which 

 passed and repassed round the circle 

 of a roomful of people and paid every- 

 body's debts. 



Now for some of the fruits of this 

 piece of financial engineering which it 

 took five years to perfect. First, the 

 8ilva of North America, probably the 

 most splendid- scientific book of any 

 kind that has been produced in the 

 western hemisphere, certainly the best 

 work ever published that describes the 

 trees and shrubs of any country; sec- 

 ond, Garden and Forest, the best hor- 

 ticultural periodical we have ever had; 

 third, the Jesup collection of the trees 

 of North America, now preserved in the 

 American Museum of Natural History 

 at New York, a collection which is all 

 that a tree-lover, horticulturist, botan- 

 ist, forester, lumberman or woodworker 

 eould wish for; fourth, its census of the 

 forest wealth of the country, which had 

 mnoh to do with the establishment of 

 a national forest reserve that now 

 amounts to 62,000,000 acres of timber 

 land; fifth, its work in connection with 

 the establishment of the first state re- 

 serve, that of New York; sixth, its part 

 in the rescue of Niagara Falls and the 

 creation of a great park there; seventh, 

 its contribution to landscape garden- 

 ing, since it has shown that a botanical 

 garden may be made prijnarily a beau- 

 tiful park, instead of a mere outdoor 

 museum; eighth, its educational value 

 to the general public, to college stu- 

 dents and to nurserymen and garden- 

 ers; lastly, its direct practical services 

 to horticulture in testing the hardiness 

 and ornamental value of new and rare 

 trees and shrubs. All this is a good 

 deal to grow out of a gift of about 

 $10,000 in 1868, but a wise gift often 

 grows that way. An acorn makes a 

 nnall start, but it has big possibilities. 



THE HUCKLEBERRY BRANCHES. 



The branches of tho high-growing 

 huckleberry have been known to the dec- 

 orators on the Pacific coast. The 

 branches are flat and well furnished 

 with enduring, lustrous, green leaves and 

 can be used in almost the sams manner 

 as wild smilax. Usually there has been 

 enough wild smilax to meet the spring 

 demand, but this year most markets are 

 wholly without wild smilax and in some 

 what little remains is of such poor 

 quality that the decorators are not using 

 it. This has made an opening for the 

 huckleberry, which is finding its way 

 to northern markets through the same 

 channel as came the first wild smilax, 

 from Caldwell, at Evergreen, Ala. The 

 accompanying illustration gives an idea 

 of the character of the foliage. It en- 

 dures well and seems to have already 

 established itself as a permanent dec- 

 orative green in many parts of the coun- 

 try where it was unknown a month ago. 



HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIAS. 



"The charge that is generally brought 

 against the herbaceous calceolaria by un- 

 successful growers, ' ' says a writer in the 

 (hardeners' Magazine, "is the one that 

 has often been brought against the stage 

 pelargonium, viz., that it's a dirty thing 

 for greenfiy. Now, it must frankly be 

 admitted that greenfly are somewhat par- 

 tial to both pelargoniums and calceolar- 



ias grown under certain conditions, but 

 by fulfilling a few simple conditions, 

 both plants, especially the calceolaria, 

 can be so grown that the aphides will 

 give very little trouble. I do not remem- 

 ber ever having to fumigate or vaporize 

 a batch of plants more than twice, and 

 I have often found once quite sufficient. 

 This leads me to make one preliminary 

 remark, and I attach great importance 

 to it; it is this, that I am certain that 

 nine-tenths of the failures that occur in 

 calceolaria culture are due to coddling; 

 in other words, when the calceolaria is 

 killed, it is almost invariably by kind- 



ness. 



"Calceolarias were first introduced to 

 this country froip Chili and Peru in the 

 end of the eighteenth and beginning of 



The Decorative Huckleberry. 



the nineteenth century, some of them be- 

 ing of a shrubby and some of a herba- 

 ceous habit. Our present day superb 

 strains are the results of hybridiza- 

 tion between such old named varieties 

 as amplexieaulis, integrifolia, purpurea, 

 corymbosa, and a few others. 



' ' I should think there are comparative- 

 ly few really poor strains of calceolaria 

 seed in the market today, but some 

 strains are undoubtedly superior to 

 others, and I would therefore, advise cau- 

 tion in the purchase of seed. 'In com- 

 paring strains, two points ought to be 

 kept in view. The first and primary one 

 is the size and quality of the flowers, 

 as every other consideration is only a 

 meaps to this end. A second point is, 

 however, worthy of consideration, viz., 

 the habit of the plants. I have no ad- 

 miration for the Tom Thumb strains 

 that are sometimes to be met with nowa- 

 days, but, on the other hand, a leggy 

 habit should be avoided, a medium 



height with a compact habit being *the 

 most desirable. Another point worth 

 noting in connection with habit is this: 

 It will be found that plants which natur- 

 ally produce ample foliage of a thick, 

 succulent ' character are more vigorous 

 and healthy than those with thin, spare 

 foliage ; moreover, a groundwork of mas- 

 sive green foliage helps to relieve the 

 bright color of the flowers." 



A FINE PHALAENOPSIS. 



The accompanying illustration is re- 

 produced from a photograph of a spec- 

 imen of Phalsenopsis Schilleriana flow- 

 ering at the greenhouses of H. G. Sel- 

 fridge. Lake Geneva, Wis. C. H. Qeb- 

 hardt, the gardener in charge, sup- 

 plies the following note on the sub- 

 ject: 



" Phalsenopsis Schilleriana, from the 

 Philippine Islands, is one of the finest 

 otchids in cultivation, quite dissimilar 

 from any other kind. The roots are 

 very distinct, being flat and rough and 

 free in growth. The leaves are oblong, 

 six to eighteen inches long, finely var- 

 iegated, dark green mottled with 

 streaks of greyish white on the upper 

 side, the under surface purple. The 

 scapes produced frqm the axils of 

 the leaves, are from two to three feet 

 long, more branched than those of any 

 other kind. The individual flowers are 

 from two to three inches across. They 

 are of a beautiful light pink color 

 edged with white. They flower in 

 summer and autumn and last for sev- 

 eral weeks. We keep them in our East 

 Indian house. The culture is the 

 same as I have given lately for Phal- 

 senopsis Bhimestadiana. ' ' 



GONGORA GALEATA. 



The photograph shows a plant in the 

 collection of H. G. Selfridge, Lake 

 Geneva, Wis., whose head gardener 

 supplies the accompanying note: "Qon- 

 gora galeata (syn Acropera Loddigerii) 

 is from Mexico. It is not a showy 

 orchid but very interesting for an am- 

 ateur, as the flowers are curious in 

 their formation. When fully devel- 

 oped the pseudo-bulbs are ovate, clus- 

 tered. From their base the drooping 

 racemes of flowers are produced. They 

 are pale, tawny yellow, with a brown- 

 ish red and are very fragrant." 



PHILADELPHIA. 



The Market 



Business is dull. These are all the 

 facts in a nutshell. Even sweet peas are 

 hard to sell. A feature of the market 

 supply is the arrival of flowers from the 

 specialist in outdoor blooms. Thomas J. 

 Oberlin, of Sinking Springs, near Read- 

 ing, Pa., has sent in first shipments, 

 including Gesneriana tulips to Fred 

 Ehret. It may be said that most of 

 the stock brings something, but the aver- 

 age is not in sight of the listed prices, 

 the street proportion being large. 



The Center of Activity. 



It is today no longer a question 

 whether to buy stock east of Broad street 

 or west, the desire to sell cut flowers be- 

 ing infinitely greater than the desire to 

 buy them. The question is where to find 

 the growing plants needed to adorn the 

 garden, the lawn, the window and the 

 porch. The fateful tenth of May has ar- 

 rived and more business is now being 



