254 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [Dec's. 



Uj) Genessee Farmer, and many others which we have no acquaintance Z) 

 A 3 with directly. And the Working Farmer, not least in the list, must ^ 

 not be overlooked. We are glad to know all these, and to exist on 

 terms of intimate friendship wi*h all of them. We may now ask, 

 what has Pennsylvania to offer as an offset against all thesel — or ra- 

 ther, what had Pennsylvania, at the beginning of the present year, in 

 horticultural literature! Nothing, but a farm journal that professed to 

 interest itself in any way in gardening affairs. We launched the 

 "Florist and Horticultural Journal " hopefully on the waters, desti- 

 tute at the time of any craft similar in character ; and now we are 

 about to fit her out anew — we are about to solicit an increase and 

 continuation of the support already bestowed upon us. But we can- 

 not be content to lay behind all our cotemporaries, limited by the mere 

 nominal charge of one dollar per annum for more than 400 pages of 

 the best practical information, and several colored plates which cost 

 all the money. We must rank ourselves in cost, as well as value, 

 with those respectable periodicals which now benefit the community 

 by their valuable information. '^rjf- 



Re quire merits of Horticulture in the U. S- 



Horticultural science in this country is yet in its infancy. We 

 have not yet arrived at that point of luxury which lavishes on the 

 park, the conservatory, and on the gentleman's kitchen and fruit 

 gardens, sums equal to the income of some of our richest men. Nor 

 will the demand for such things here permit of such vast nursery es- 

 tablishments as are to be found in England, or on the continent. As 

 this country grows older, we shall advance in wealth and extravagance, 

 it is not now a new thing to have salads and other vegetables grown 

 under glass during the winter season, but no one thinks of growing 

 cucumbers yet, from 3 to 30 shillings sterling a brace. But we shall 

 no doubt come to that. 



Some very large prices have lately been paid for rare and fine 

 plants, by the amateurs and nurserymen of this neighborhood, but we 

 little realize the money expended by English noblemen, in enriching 

 their collections with the rarities of other continents. The Duke of 

 Devonshire, and the late Earl of Derby, had their collectors in India 

 and in South America, as have the Botanic Gardens, and the larger 

 nurserymen. 



It may yet require many years before we cease to depend on Eu- 

 rope for rare plants: even those of our own continent we receive 

 second hand from there; the plants of California and New Mexico, the 

 Cacti of Mexico, the Orchids of Central America, and all the rarities 

 of tropical South America, which are so much nearer to us, we give cr 

 ^profitable prices to foreign nurserymen to send back to us across the ^T) 



' 3£Po^ _^fQ£ag 



