May 6, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



2I 5 



of bright color even under the soft sunshine and the opal haze 

 of spring. 



The attractive features of this locality are not confined to 

 the city limits, however. Yesterday a drive of a few miles up 

 the Potomac brought me to Glen Echo, where, on the river's 

 bank, the new and permanent home of the Chautauquans has 

 been selected. 



The woods abound with Dogwoods and Redbuds, and 

 they are now in their glory. The bright blossoms among the 

 sombre Cedars and Pines, and the rapidly bursting foliage of 

 the Chestnuts, Elms, Oaks, Poplars, Beeches, with their vary- 

 ing tints and shades, make the prospect one dream of beauty. 



The carpeting of these groves, which has long been flecked 

 with the Trailing Arbutus, the milky Bloodroots and pale pink 

 and blue Liverworts, is now ornamented with clumps of Saxi- 

 frage, Spring Beauties and graceful Wind-flowers, with here 

 and there a patch of Bluets, Buttercups and Violets. Besides 

 these are Adders'-tongues or Dog's-tooth Violets, some 

 bunches of the early Daisy, with its broad golden eye and fine 

 lavender lashes, sometimes, I think, called Robin's Plantain, 

 and graceful stems of Solomon's Seal almost in bloom. Far- 

 ther down the slopes are snowy stretches of the great starry 

 Chickvveed, and near the water the stiff Jack-in-the-pulpit, the 

 odd umbrella-leaved May Apples and uncurling fronds of 

 many Ferns are running riot. Around the base of the rocks, 

 many of the crevices of which are adorned with clumps of 

 wild Columbine, are tufts of Everlasting, wild Pinks [Silene 

 Peniisylvanica) and the pretty-leaved Lousewort. There is an 

 occasional breath from the Swamp Magnolia, and the warm 

 pink Azaleas are just beginning to bloom among the Huckle- 

 berries on the hill-side. Near the rivergrows the purple Lady's- 

 slipper, with its rosette of light green leaves, amid a great 

 wealth of the Lungwort, with its smooth, tender foliage, grace- 

 ful stems and loosely flowered racemes of dainty purplish pink 

 buds the size of a pin-head, with the full, open trumpets of the 

 developed flower, a delicate clear blue. Surely, Glen Echo is 

 worth a visit. 



Washington, D. C. M. i'llller. 



Orchids at Whitinsville. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In the conservatories of Mrs. J. W. Lasell, at Whitins- 

 ville, Massachusetts, I recently saw a plant of Cyinbidiuiu 

 Lo-wianum with eleven spikes, and nineteen flowers on some 

 of the spikes. The flowers of this plant had more of the 

 golden yellow tinge than is generally seen, while the lip was 

 a rich dark brown. 



A superb specimen of Cattleya amethystoglossa had a spike 

 with twenty-three flowers. Fortunately, this remarkable plant 

 has been photographed. In other Cattleyas this collection is 

 remarkably rich, having good specimens of all the choice 

 species and varieties. 



Among Cypripediums are many fine plants of Spicerianum, 

 Lawrencianum, Sanderianum and others, some forty varie- 

 ties in all. Mr. McWilliam, under whose care those fine 

 plants flourish, has a great many seedling hybrids which are 

 yet too small to' flower. Notable among the large collection of 

 Dendrobiums here, is a specimen of D.formosum giganteum, 

 which made a twenty-nine-inch growth last season, producing 

 twelve large well-developed flowers. The English horticul- 

 tural journals complain that this plant does not succeed well 

 there. Mr. McWilliam grows it in a much lower temperature 

 than it is said to have in England, and gives it a three months' 

 rest after flowering at a temperature of forty-five degrees. Coelo- 

 gyne cristata was almost past, but had been a mass of flow- 

 ers for three months. Twenty-six ten-inch pans produced 

 from thirty to fifty-four spikes each. 



Disa grandiflora flowers here every summer, with Lselias in 

 variety, and many Lycastes, Masdevallias, Oncidiums, Phalee- 

 nopses, Saccolabiums, Vandas and Zygopetalums. Of Odon- 

 toglossums there are more than two hundred plants of choice 

 varieties, 0. vexillarium being particularly well done. One 

 plant last season had thirteen spikes. 



Calanthes were a show of themselves for about three months, 

 a hundred plants being in flower at once last year. 



Peristeria elata, the Holy Ghost Plant, is well grown here, as 

 those will testify who saw the remarkable plant at the exhibi- 

 tion in Boston last August. This plant had twelve spikes, and 

 one of them bore seventeen expanded flowers, with as many 

 more to open. 



Apart from Orchids, there is much here to interest intelli- 

 gent lovers of plants, not only in the way of rare and choice 

 specimens, but in the admirable growth of all kinds of plants, 

 which is the test of a good gardener. 



Whitinsville, Mass. W. S, 



Recent Publications. 



Floriculture as an industry has never been made the 

 subject of census investigation until now, and, therefore, the 

 preliminary report which has just come to this office has 

 exceptional interest. The business has been carried on, of 

 course, for more than a hundred years in the country, and 

 yet the statistics show that it has only assumed large propor- 

 tions during the last quarter of a century. Out of nearly 5,000 

 establishments, three-fifths have been started since 1870 and 

 one-third of them since 1880. At the beginning of the century 

 there was but one commercial florist in the country, and only 

 three establishments were started between 1810 and 1820. 

 Eighty per cent, of the entire business has been developed 

 during the past twenty-five years. During the census year 

 every state and territory, except Idaho, Nevada, the Indian 

 TerritoryandOklahama, reported some business in floriculture, 

 and, perhaps, in these states small establishments would have 

 been discovered if sufficiently thorough investigation could 

 have been made. 



The report makes record of 4,659 establishments, of which 

 312 were owned and conducted by women. These establish- 

 ments had in use 38,823,247 square feet of glass, covering a 

 space of more than 891 acres. Their value, including fix- 

 tures and heating apparatus, was $38,355,722, and the tools 

 used were valued at $1,587,690 more. Wages amounting to 

 $8,483,600 were paid to 16,847 men and 1,958 women. The 

 fuel cost more than $1 ,000,000, and the postage on the 20,000,000 

 catalogues amounted to $767,438. In addition to this, more 

 than $1,000,000 were paid for advertising, and another $1,000,000 

 for freight and express bills. The receipts from cut flowers 

 amounted to more than $14,000,000, and from plants and 

 shrubs more than $12,000,000. The largest area in glass in a 

 single establishment was found in the District of Columbia, 

 and the smallest in a New England farm-house, from which the 

 lady of the house sells annually from $35 to $50 worth of plants 

 and flowers, raised under sixty square feet of glass. Besides 

 the Society of American Florists there are 965 state and local 

 societies and clubs, and 358 horticultural societies, and these, 

 aided by the agricultural and horticultural press, have helped 

 to put the industry in its present healthy and prosperous con- 

 dition, giving employment to thousands of people, and fur- 

 nishing a fair reward for capital invested, besides doing much 

 to adorn the homes and elevate the taste of people of all 

 classes. 



It is difficult to estimate the rate of wages paid, because 

 many of the greenhouses are small — that is, having a glass 

 area of from 300 to 1,500 square feet — and in them there is no 

 outside labor employed, since the owner or some member of 

 his family does all the work, often in connection with market 

 gardening or a small nursery-trade, and some of the smaller 

 establishments are conducted by women or persons who are 

 invalids and who are not able or do not care to work all the 

 time. In many of the larger establishments during the busy 

 seasons numbers of extra men are employed, and this makes 

 an additional difficulty in the estimate. The figures seem to 

 show, however, that the wages paid in what is called the North 

 Atlantic division of the United States are rather more than $1.50 

 a day to men, and rather less than a dollar a day to women, 

 although in every establishment of any size there are men act- 

 ing as experts, or as foremen, who receive from $15 to $20 

 a week. In the southern states lower wages are paid, and higher 

 pay is commanded in the Pacific states. 



Of the plants sold the demand in the northern and eastern 

 states is greatest for the following in nearly the order named : 

 Geraniums, Coleus, Roses, Pansies, Verbenas, Heliotropes, 

 Carnations, Chrysanthemums, Palms, Ferns and Fuchsias. In 

 the south the demand is for Roses first, and then for Chrysan- 

 themums, Geraniums, Coleus, Palms and Ferns, while Cali- 

 fornia shows the demand to be largest for Roses, Carnations, 

 Chrysanthemums, Geraniums, Palms and Pansies. There is 

 also a very general and growing demand for aquatic plants, 

 and specialists are giving marked attention to this branch of 

 the business. Regarding cut-flower sales, reports show that, 

 while there is a slight variation in the demands of the different 

 markets, the greatest demand everywhere is for Roses, fol- 

 lowed closely by Carnations. These two furnish about sixty- 

 five per cent, in value of all cut flowers sold. Violets, Chry- 

 santhemums, Lilies, Hyacinths, Smilax, Bouvardias, Heliotrope, 

 Pansies and Tulips, in the order named, supply twenty-five 

 per cent, more, while the other ten per cent, is made up of 

 Orchids, Tuberoses, Mignonette, Primroses, Camellias, Daffo- 

 dils, and many others cultivated in a small way to supply a 

 special or local demand. As to the profits in the business 

 from the different classes of plants, eighty per cent, of the re- 



