18 THE FLORIST, AND 



scientific, very zealous for the advancement of science, (for you must 

 not be too much dazzled with scientific men, they are often great 

 humbugs,) especially the more active men, Secretaries, Chairmen 

 of Committees, &c. Such a society ought not to be overruled by 

 the Gerontocracj^.* We are in an age of progress, and you must 

 not retrograde or be stationary, but advance, march with the age ; 

 for are you not Americans in Pennsylvania ? Will you allow the 

 old country ideas of Europe to rule you? I do not believe it. You 

 ought not to retrograde, but it is what I think you have been doing 

 since a few years. I saw Philadelphia for the first time some 12 or 

 13 years ago, and I think there were more good plants to be seen 

 then in public or private collections than at present. Your society 

 may rjossibly have saved money since then, but it has not advanced 

 the science of Gardening or Botany ; it has neither diffused the 

 taste for exotic plants or native plants. Philarvensis and others 

 will have a good deal to say before they convince people that the 

 Hemlock, Spruce and White Pine are as handsome trees as any coni- 

 ferse from Australia or other places. It will be a long time before 

 people will believe that Andromeda Mcxicana and A. arbor ea, Ascle- 

 pias tuberosa, C ypripedium spcctabih, Cornus florida, Acer montana and 

 A. stricta, Epigoza repens, Lycopodium dendroidewn, Osmunda spccta- 

 bilis, Adiantum pedatum, §*c, are as handsome as any exotics of the 

 same genera. Show a tree for elegance that will surpass a hand- 

 some hemlock, a nobler deciduous tree than Liriodendron tulipifera, 

 a handsomer perennial than Asclepias hibcrosa or Aquilegia canaden- 

 sis, or shrub than Azalea calendulacea, a prettier fern than Botry- 

 chium fumariodes, or Adiantum pedatum, and, to close the list of these 

 native gems, (for Philarvensis and others sui generis, but "wild 

 things" for most other people,) a prettier miniature of a plant than 

 Thy sera chrysophthalma; but I forget that I am going too far, I am 

 travelling out of my subject, so I will come at once to the perora- 

 tion of my epistle, which my readers have been longing for. 



I hope before long to hear of some notable changes in your society, 



and to see in the Florist, that — , gardener to , exhibited 



Phenocoma prolifera, Aphilexis humilis, Pultencea ericoides, Emboth- 

 rium or Telopea speciosissima, §•<:., three or four feet high, and about 



* I think you call this in English " Old Fogyisrri." 



