70 



AKKALS OF HORTICULTURE. 



3 THE EXHIBITS. 



The exhibitions in the Department of Horticulture began 

 as early as January, 1893, when various florist's flowers were 

 shown in the annex greenhouses in the rear of the main build- 

 ing. These shows were chiefly primulas, cyclamens and ciner- 

 arias, which were displayed in great variety and excellence, 

 representing the best strains known to seedsmen on both sides 

 of the Atlantic* When the Exposition formally opened on 

 the 1st of May, some of the exhibits in the annex were still in 

 condition, but the chief interest centered in the horticultural 

 building proper, where the great dome was staged with palms, 

 and the two front wings or curtains were rapidly filling with 

 various collections of plants. The rear wings or curtains were 

 partially filled with winter apples and various fruits in liquids, 

 and exhibits of citrous fruits from Florida and California. 

 The wooded island was not yet in foliage, and the borders and 

 exhibitor's beds were either implanted or the exhibits had 

 scarcely begun to show their earliest growth. Along the front 

 esplanade of the Horticultural Building, enormous beds of pan- 

 sies were in bloom, and a little later Dutch tulips appeared in 

 the borders along the rear of the building. The nursery plots 

 in the Midway Plaisance were implanted, and both here and 

 on the island the planting of exhibits continued until June. 



The interior of the building was interesting from the first, 

 however, and except in the whines, implements and seeds exhib- 

 its, the early or permanent displays were largely installed at 

 the time of opening. The fruit rooms progressed rapidly in 

 interest after the first of June, and the constant changing and 

 shifting of the perishable exhibits added much to the charm of 

 the general display. The floral rooms did not change percep- 

 tibly in general effects throughout the Exposition, but various 

 minor elements were variable, particularly the introduction, as 

 the season advanced, of fakir's outfits. These vender's stands 

 came to be an almost intolerable nuisance, and they were often 

 allowed to plant themselves in front of interesting exhibits, to 

 the great detriment of the legitimate purposes of the Fair. 

 At one time, twenty-one of these stands were counted under 

 the dome alone, selling articles ranging from canes and candies 

 to jewelry, flowers made of turnips, and the wonderful Colum- 

 bian cactus, for which a glowing picture of an amorphophallus 

 served as a bait to the unwary. 



3a. The Plant-effects in the Horticultural 

 Building". — There were sixteen distinct plant exhibits by 



*See Garden and Forest, vi. 94, 157, 178; American Florist, viii. 535, 954. 



