AMERICAN SEED CATALOGUES 



good-humoredly by, for the very fact that there 

 is not one of us, in the guild of gardening women 

 at least, who does not make use of these our- 

 selves! Impossible to write or speak of beauty 

 in measured terms. We must remember that en- 

 thusiasts write these catalogues. Yet no; on 

 sober second thought, why should not our lists 

 take on more restraint of language and less flam- 

 buoyancy of cover and illustration ? So surely as 

 our own plant and seed lists improve, so surely 

 shall our gardens, the gardens of America, reflect 

 this rise toward taste and knowledge in horticul- 

 ture. Mr. E. H. Wilson declares that the lover of 

 plants must and will have a larger voice in the 

 variety that shall be grown in gardens. The solu- 

 tion of the present problem will be found in both 

 amateur and dealer becoming more and more pro- 

 gressive. "That the nm-serymen and seedsmen 

 want the amateur's suggestion and criticism I feel 

 certain. At present all is too commercial." Com- 

 mercial to an extent it must be; co-operative as 

 between dealers and amateurs it must be too, and 

 more now than ever before, when the whole land 

 is awake to the great occupation of gardening. 



