8 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Jl-.ne 16, 1910. 



Miscellaneous Exhibits. 



There were a considerable number of 

 miscellaneous exhibits, the display be- 

 ing considerably augmented on the sec- 

 ond day and filling the main hall and 

 the lecture hall. 



T. C. Thurlow 's Sons staged a large 

 collection of single peony flowers. 



William Whitman set up a large dis- 

 play of digitalis, iris and peonies. 



Mrs. E. M. Gill had a fine table of 

 roses and peonies. 



Mrs. Frederick Ayer 's gardener 

 staged Begonia Rex. 



Blue Hills Nurseries put up a fine col- 

 lection of pyrethrums. 



The Eastern Nurseries staged a large 

 display of herbaceous flowers. 



E. .). Shayler was voted a silver medal 

 for a large collection of peony blooms 

 of best and newest varieties staged in 

 fine condition. Some of the best were 

 Lucrece, Mme. Crousse, Le Cygne, a 

 beautiful new white from Lemoine; 

 Mme. Emil Galle, Jeanne d'Arc, Mme. 

 Boulanger, Coronation, Octave Demay, 

 Carnea Elegans, James Kelway, Baron- 

 ess Schroeder, Mile. Rosseau, Mme. A. 

 Dessert, Boule de Neige, Due de Well- 

 ington, Cytheree, Formosa Alba and 

 others. 



Business Session. 



The business session was lightly at- 

 tended, but the handful of peony en- 

 thusiasts who constitute the society's 



out the confusion existing in the nom- 

 enclature of the peony and publishing 

 accurate descriptions* by means of 

 which all authentic varieties may be 

 identified. It was known that the task 

 would be a difficult one, but it is only 

 on looking back over the ground cov- 

 ered that one begins to realize how al- 

 most hopeless was the task and how 

 futile would have been the effort were- 

 it not for the singularly fortunate com- 

 bination of men and circumstances with 

 which it has been the society's great 

 good fortune to be favored, the result 

 of which enables me to have the sat- 

 isfaction of announcing to my fellow 

 members of the American Peony Soci- 

 ety here assembled that there is now 

 the most encouraging prospect of a 

 speedy and successful conclusion of the 

 nomenclature work which the society 

 set out eight years ago to accomplish. 

 Most of the members of the society 

 are more or less familiar with the steps 

 which led to the organization of the 

 society. We are indebted to C. W. 

 Ward, who conceived the idea and is- 

 sued the first call, and through whose 

 efforts the cooperation of Cornell Uni- 

 versity was secured and the test plot 

 established. We must acknowledge, 

 too, the ready response of our home 

 growers, whose generous contribution 

 of plants, running into thousands, 

 made the test plot an established fact. 

 To these were added through the efforts 



Peony Festiva Maxima, Generally Named as Best White. 



working force, under the leadership of 

 President Farr, put through a consider- 

 able amount of work with thoroughness 

 and dispatch. 



President's Address. 



President B. H. Farr presented his 

 annual address, in part as follows: 



Eight years have passed since the 

 American Peony Society was organized, 

 for the purjwse of trying to straighten 



of Mr. Ward and Prof. Craig, of Cor- 

 nell, the splendid foreign collections of 

 A. Dessert, Croux & Son, L. Paillet, of 

 France, Goos & Koenemann, of Ger- 

 many, De Graaff Bros., Von Leeuwen 

 & Son, of Holland, and Peter Barr, of 

 London, which have proven to be of 

 the most vital importance. In fact, it 

 is doubtful if without these we could 

 have accomplished much with any de- 

 gree of certainty. 



The task of preparing and planting 

 the peony plot was done by Cornell 

 University, which from that time on 

 assumed the great burden of the work, 

 and it is doubtful if many members of 

 the society realize the full extent of 

 indebtedness we owe to the university 

 and to those who have had the work 

 directly in charge, especially to Dean 

 L. H. Bailey, who during the last two 

 years has given Prof. Batchelor carte 

 blanche to go ahead and do everything 

 which in his judgment was needed to 

 bring the experiment to a successful is- 

 sue. Also to Prof. John Craig, of the 

 Department of Horticulture, who has 

 taken a deep personal interest in the 

 work, which has been done under his 

 personal supervision. 



We must not forget that while the 

 work and interests of the Peony Soci- 

 ety are national in their scope, the 

 university is an institution of the state 

 of New York, and, while the Peony 

 Society has made donations toward the 

 cost to some extent, the greater part of 

 the expense of caring for the test plot, 

 publishing the bulletins, photographing, 

 etc., and the men detailed to carry on 

 the studies, have been furnished and 

 paid for by the university. 



Last, but not least, we realize how 

 much has depended on those at Cornell 

 who have had the actual work to do 

 and whose indefatigable and scholarly 

 efforts have cleared the way to ulti- 

 mate success. To Prof. J. Eliot Coit 

 we are indebted for the check list con- 

 taining all the names of peonies known 

 to exist in commerce, upward of 3,000 

 in all, together with a most compre- 

 hensive bibliology of the peonj' extend- 

 ing back to the sixth century; also for 

 the first bulletin, containing the his- 

 tory of the peony, classification, culti- 

 vation, etc., and the preliminary de- 

 scriptive list of about fifty varieties. 



To Prof. Leon D. Batchelor, who has 

 so ably and conscientiously carried on 

 the work from where Prof. Coit left it, 

 we owe the second bulletin, covering 

 the work of the nomenclature commit- 

 tee last year, with a careful description 

 in detail of 290 varieties. Following 

 up the plan adopted last year, Mr. 

 Batchelor has. in cooperation with the 

 special committee appointed for this 

 work, visited other collections where 

 the season is earlier than at Cornell, 

 and so far over 100 new descriptions 

 have been made this season, and it is 

 expected before the season closes at 

 Ithaca a total list of approximately 500 

 varieties will have been identified and 

 described. It is proposed to publish a 

 fourth bulletin early this fall, covering 

 the work to date. 



A new planting has been made con 

 taining three plants each of all the 

 varieties so far identified and to these 

 will be added this fall specimens of the 

 additional varieties described, so that 

 when the society again meets at Ithaca 

 the net results of the work accom 

 plished will be condensed and may be 

 seen by all. This meeting should, in 

 my opinion, be held two years hence, 

 which will allow the plants to become 

 well established. It will allow time 

 also for the discussion of descriptions 

 as published and the correction of 

 errors before the publication of the 

 final, official catalogue of the society. 

 This, too, will mark the conclusion for 

 all practical purposes of the test, and 

 the accomplishment so far as this goes 

 of the original object for which the 

 societv was formed. 



