August 22, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



301 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY I;V 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office ; Tribune Building, New Yukk. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sa 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, ig 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : —The Society of American Florists.— Spring-Flower- 

 ing Bulbs.— Lonibardy Poplars in the Eastern States.— A Wood Picture. . 301 



Foreign Correspondence :— London Letter ://; Goldruig. 303 



New or Little Known Plants : — Magnolia hypoleuca (with illustra- 

 tion) C. S. S. 304 



Cultural Department : —The Vegetable Garden.— The Plum.— Ferns for 



Basket Culture,— Whitewash for Rose-beetles.— Gentians.— Sweet Peas. . 305 



Orchid Notes :—Cattleya Bowringiana.- Anguloa uniflora.— Oncidium nia- 



cranthum -Qg 



Plant Notes ;— The Victoria Re^ia— The Home of. the Jacobean Lilv.— Ouis- 



qualis Indica.— Clematis Davidiana .' !" ^oq 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum ........!, V. -09 



The Forest : — Farmers and Foresty ^ ro 



Correspondence ^^^ 



Periodic.vl Litekature .,, , 



^°^« ; !!.!!!!^^^!^^! 311 



Illustrations:— Maq;nolia Hypoleuca, Fig, 49 tos 



Hardy Bulbs Blooming in the Grass \.\ ^6 



The Victoria Tank at "Sandvside," Yarmouth .. 308 



The Sociel}' of American Florists. 



THIS association, although young- in years, has aheady 

 become, in thebroadest sense of the word, a national oi'- 

 ganization, embracing in its membership the most promi- 

 nent commercial growers of plants and flowers in every state 

 of the Union. Subordinate societies, known as Florists' 

 Clubs, ha\-e been formed in many cities, and the frequent 

 meeting of these clubs and their vital connection with the 

 parent society make an organization strong and efficient 

 to secure with certainty and promptness every advantao-e 

 that comes from co-operative effort. Primarily, it is a trade 

 organization, created and developed for the benefit of that 

 rapidly increasing class who have a business interest in 

 growing plants and cut flowers. In a genuine sense, how- 

 ever, the influence of the society reaches all who love 

 flowers and cultivate them, and this influence, so far as we 

 know, has been for good only. ■ In some cases, it is true, 

 the formation of a Florists' Club has been followed by the 

 sudden death of the local Florticultural Society, but socie- 

 ties with such feeble vitality have little excuse for surviv- 

 ing. There is no essential conflict between the trade-asso- 

 ciations, whose work lies- in one special direction, and the 

 horticultural societies, which occupy a broader field for 

 purposes other than commercial. The two associations 

 should be mutually helpful, and all the more so when each 

 IS held strictly to its distinctive work. Certainly a horti- 

 cultural society falls short of its highest aim when it is 

 managed so e.xclusively in the interest of trade that the 

 establishment of a florists' business club in its neif^hbor- 

 hood leaves nothing for it to do. '^ 



Horticulture, in the fullness of its meaning, is a dtmiain 

 which this association and its offshoots do not attempt to 

 occupy, and yet while working in their restricted field and 

 for a special purpose, the meeting of the florists here in 

 annual convention this week has awakened more general 

 attention than any similar gathering m recent years. This 

 IS partly owing to the fact that the promised attendance 

 will be much larger, that the subjects announced for dis- 

 cussion are of greater practical interest, and that the exhi- 

 bition of plants, flowers and florists' appliances will be 



more varied and extensive than at any former meeting. 

 But behind all this is the additional fact that flowers and 

 floriculture have a deeper hold upon the affections of the 

 people every year, especially in New York, the centre of 

 the most important Rose-growing district in the country, 

 and the market in which more cut flowers are sold than in 

 any other city on the globe. The cultural questions dis- 

 cussed will be an education to amateurs as well as to the 

 members, and so will all information relating to the special 

 habits and uses of different plants, to the use of insecti- 

 cides, to the construction of green-houses, and to other mat- 

 ters of practice. In a wider sense every discovery made 

 and every forward step taken, that will prove helpful to 

 the members from a business point of view, will also be 

 of advantage to the buyer, as it enables him to secure 

 plants and flowers with less trouble and expense. The 

 reduction of postage on plants, seeds and bulbs, for exam- 

 ple, which has just been effected, largely through the 

 labors of this organization, will make it possible for all 

 who buy plants to secure larger ones and more of them at 

 the old rates, not only through the mails, but by express as 

 well, for express charges will be reduced as they come in 

 competition with the post. 



To the members themselves the value of these gatherings 

 can hardly be overestimated. The production of flowers 

 under artificial conditions, and at unnatural seasons, to- 

 gether with the weakening effect of high cultivation and 

 the inbreeding of varieties, have inevitably developed dis- 

 eases and pests hitherto unnoticed or unknown, and in the 

 study of these difficulties a comparison of experience by 

 men from widely separated regions is an invaluable aid. 

 Nor will this interchange of experimental knowledge be 

 confined to any single topic, but vi^ill be found of value 

 throughout the entire range of commercial and cultural 

 practice. And again, the instruction thus imparted will 

 not be derived alone from the formal addresses and the 

 still more suggestive discussions that follow them. One of 

 the leading plantsmen of the country recently stated that 

 a suggestion dropped by a fellow member in a casual con- 

 versation at a meeting of the Association in Chicago had 

 enabled him to save thousands of dollars in glazing his 

 green-houses alone. Apart, then, from the recreative and 

 social features of this meeting, from the instruction and 

 pleasure offered by the exhibition, which will illustrate 

 the most progressive practice in every department 

 of floriculture and floral decoration, and the advantages 

 that come from travel and enlarged acquaintance, the in- 

 timate association for days together of several hundred 

 alert business men, engaged in the same pursuit and 

 studying the same problems, must tend to give every 

 member fresh ideas, quicken his spirit of enterprise and 

 broaden his mental horizon. 



The Society of American Florists has already accom- 

 plished enough to justify the hopes of its founders, to merit 

 the good will and command the respect of all who are in- 

 terested in floriculture. It is under the guidance of intelli- 

 gent and progressive men, and it is destined to wield a 

 still more important influence as the great industry which 

 it represents continues its wonderful growth. It is only 

 when we consider how largely the public is dependent 

 upon nurserymen, seedsmen and florists for instruction in 

 practical horticulture, and to what extent the buyer's selec- 

 tion of varieties is controlled by the illustrations in their 

 catalogues, the trees, shrubs and vines in their trial grounds; 

 the floral displays in their shop windows, and the discus- 

 sions in their societies, that we begin to realize the public 

 importance of these gatherings. Fortunately the tendency 

 of these meetings, so far as they are educational, is to- 

 wards greater simplicity and naturalness in the way of 

 decorative planting and floral arrangement. A steady 

 progress in {his direction is manifested in the trade from 

 year to year, and if the time should come when the leading 

 members of the Society are not as conspicuous for good 

 taste as for business enterprise and ability, it will not be 

 the result of the deliberations at these assemblies. 



