1852.] THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 



€fo florist unu JSortmiltural. SoornaL 



Philadelphia, May, 1852. 



OUR APOLOGY. 



For what \ Not for being what we are : a number of plain 

 Philadelphia Gardeners, unaided by any friendly clique or influence 

 of notable patrons. Not for trving to be what we are not; Authors 

 instead of Workingmen. Not for venturing upon our undertaking 

 without previously enlisted support, and trusting to the appreciation of 

 the community in which we live for our patronage and support. — 

 This would be to apologize for Philadelphia. Shall our apology 

 then be for Philadelphia! Philadelphia as wanting in interest in 

 Horticulture! Old Philadelphia, that boasted the first Green Houses 

 on the American Continent, whose Bartrams, more than one, were 

 among the first collectors of the world, and that was foremost, almost 

 without competition in the great work of introducing the floral natives 

 of the new to the old world, and naturalizing those of the old world 

 the new. Or is it the Philadelphia of the Horticultural Socety, still 

 substantially the only Horticultural Society of the Union that now 

 founded twenty-six years, goes on with every year increasing in means 

 and usefulness 1 Or Modern Philadelphia is it, the Philadelphia that 

 sends its bouquetsto the reigning belles of the whole Union ; that sup- 

 ports they say its 1500 Gardeners and 5000 Garden laborers, — of 

 whose florists one has over 20,000 square feet under glass; the city 

 that imports so many varieties of exotics every year, and that is 

 known to possess collections of rare and beautiful plants in value ex- 

 ceeding $200,000 1 Or are we to mean the Philadelphia of the past 

 year, itself, that has seen the Victoria Regia blossom in glory — the 

 past year in which we discover that two of our fanciers alone 

 have paid the sum of $280 and $400 each, for exotics imported by 

 them from Europe and introduced to the United States for the first 

 time % Or the Philadelphia of the month in which we write, the 

 Philadelphia of April 15th; when, at an entertainment given by a 

 lady, one of the brightest ornaments of elegant and refined society, 

 her drawing-room conservatory presented the most admirable specta- 

 cle of at least eight thousand dollars worth of flowers in full and 

 perfect bloom. The foreigners who were there, admitted how few 

 Palaces in Europe could array that charming sight. No ! no, Phila- 

 delphia may bellow in publishing and proclaiming her own merits ; 

 > but she never has been deficient in zeal for Horticulture ! 

 7a Still why should we not be content to keep our mouth-pieces at the - 

 ^ North, where they say they are getting to do all the talking and writing ^J 



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