

The Weekly Florists' Review.' 



••■->^« 



JULT 4, 1907. 



After the Thursday afternoon session 

 the members spent an hour or two in 

 inspecting and studying these plats. In 

 the evening the members of the society 

 were entertained by Prof, and Mrs. 

 Craig at their home. 



The Sessions. 



The first session of the society was 

 lield on Thursday afternoon. Prof. 

 Bailey, dean of the College of Agricul- 

 ture, welcomed the society to Cornell. 

 He said that the college stood for peony 

 culture as well as that of any other 

 agricultural or horticultural product. 

 He explained to the members of the so- 

 ciety what the university at Ithaca is 

 and the relation the College of Agricul- 

 ture bears to it, together with the work 

 of the college. It is now a State Col- 

 lege of Agriculture, and as such is sup- 

 ported by the state, which now appro- 

 priates $150,000 annually for its main- 

 tenance. The new buildings of the col- 

 lege cost $300,000 and are not yet fully 

 equipped. The dean, who is perhaps 

 the foremost agricultural educator in 

 this country, holds that agriculture in- 

 cludes everything connected with the 

 soil and the plants which grow upon it, 

 so that the college is covering a large 

 field — rather more than the money at its 

 disposal warrants. Peony culture' is one 

 of these branches, and as much work has 

 been done at Cornell with the peony as 

 with any other flower, if not more. Cor- 

 nell University has a larger staflf of 

 teachers than almost any other univer- 

 sity in the country. The proportion of 

 students to teachers is relatively small, 

 which is a great advantage. More than 

 4,000 students are in attendance, 542 

 of whom are in the College of Agricul- 

 ture. 



President C. W. Ward presented his 

 annual address. He said in part: 



President's Address. 



* ' The purpose of a college of agricul- 

 ture is to teach agriculturists the most 

 intelligent methods in the culture of 

 plants and in the management of labor. 

 There has been a great lack of such 



intelligent business methods among flo- 

 rists, which has cost them the loss of 

 a good deal of money. They do not 

 know the exact cost of production of 

 their products, as do other producers. 

 "Why not apply the same business 

 methods to the growing of flowers as 

 the coal or lumber merchant applies to 

 the products of his mine or forest? He 

 knows just what it costs to produce each 

 ton of coal and each thousand feet of 

 lumber. Is there any reason why a 

 florist should not know what it costs him 

 to produce a thousand peony blooms? 

 Many florists lose money, except for the 

 increase in the value of their land. The 

 sale of flowers is very important, and 

 here is where many florists fail. We 

 are looking to our agricultural colleges 

 to help correct some of these loose 

 methods and make up some of these de- 

 ficiencies. The success of the college 

 is measured by the success of its grad- 

 uates in after life. 



"At present there is little or no profit 

 in peony culture, because its lists can- 

 not be depended upon. A customer 

 cannot be sure what variety he is get- 

 ting, or whether a variety is correctly 

 named or not, and no one is in a posi- 

 tion to tell him. We now have some 

 3,000 peonies, whereas 150 would be 

 ample to cover our necessities. The test 

 plats here at Cornell are to determine 

 varieties and to reduce their number to 

 a commercial basis. Varieties must be 

 identified accurately, so that the same 

 variety can be bought anywhere. 



"Another important work is to create 

 a love for peonies on the part of the 

 public. This may be best done by ex- 

 hibition of the flowers, inviting the pub- 

 lic in. These exhibitions of the society 

 are accomplishing much in this direction. 

 We propose to hold such an exhibition 

 on our private grounds at Queens, L. I., 

 next year for this purpose." 



At the beginning of the Friday morn- 

 ing session President Ward gave the de- 

 sirable points in a good peony, illustrat- 

 ing his talk with specimens. He said 

 that he had been testing peonies at 

 Queens for fifteen years. He selects for 



fullness of center, for commercial value, 

 for points of habit of the flowers, as 

 keeping quality and season of bloom, 

 for erectness of stems, and for perfect 

 flowers. Mr. Ward urged the selection 

 of, say 100 best varieties, and the con- 

 centration of work on these, eliminating 

 all others. He greatly favored the plan 

 of sending these best varieties to Cor- 

 nell to be tested. 



The G>mmittee on Nomencbture* 



Prof. Craig, of the Horticultural De- 

 partment, then presented the report of 

 the committee on nomenclature, embody- 

 ing in it a sketch of the system and 

 presenting some excellent suggestions. 

 He said that a system of nomenclature 

 for plants was only established about 

 100 years ago. Linnaeus, the great 

 botanist, founded the double name sys- 

 tem, giving both a genital and a va- 

 rietal name to the plant. Our present 

 system was devised by De CandoUe in 

 1813. After undergoing revision in 

 1842, and again in 1867, by French 

 botanists — from which it is known as 

 the "Paris Code" — it was finally modi- 

 fied and aflBirmed as oflScial by the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



"Since there are 200,000 recognized 

 species of plants," Prof. Craig con- 

 tinued, "and over 700,000 names, the 

 necessity of a code of nomenclature will 

 be seen. In 1869, Mr. Barry, of Koches- 

 ter, N. Y., formulated a set of rules, 

 which, with revision, are generally used 

 for guidance in naming varieties. They 

 are as follows: I. No two varieties 

 may bear the same name. II. The name 

 should be simple and brief. III. The 

 name should be as characteristic as it is 

 possible to make it without interfering 

 with Rules I and II, which should come 

 first. On page 11 of Mr. Coit's 'Peony 

 Check List' may be found further rules 

 of classification. 



"The rules are absolutely essential to 

 a good system of nomenclature. We 

 expect some trouble in this way on the 

 experimental plats, but we shall try to 

 be just and impartial. We must work 



The Classes for Fifty White and Fifty Pink at the Ilhaca Peony Show June 27 and 28. 



(The ffentleni»n 1b J. Kllot Colt, who haa had direct chargre of the Cornell test platB and compiled the Cornell peony check llat.) 



