ORGANIZATION ENTERPRISES. 



35 



and subjects connected with the evolution of plants were the 

 topics which, in one form or another, consumed the greater 

 part of the time. Twenty, or even ten years, ago these topics 

 would have been considered dry and unpractical. Now they 

 are discussed with directness and earnestness by both culti- 

 vators and professors. The times are changing rapidly and for 

 the better. Foreign guests were few, but they numbered some 

 distinguished persons — Henri L. de Vilmorin, Professor Dr L. 

 Wittmack and J. Peclersen-Bjergaard. The attendance was 

 small, largely because the programs were not announced until 

 it was too late to advertise them to the country and the world. 

 The poniological and nursery interests, for various reasons, did 

 not respond quickly. The nurserymen had already held their 

 stated annual session in June, and could not be induced to 

 return so soon. Many of the florists, however, returned to Chi- 

 cago from the St. Louis meeting, and the seedsmen held their 

 annual session in Chicago just preceding the Congress. These 

 trades, therefore, comprised the greater part of the attendance 

 at the Congress. The pomologists let slip a good opportunity 

 to impress themselves upon the country. The Congress cannot 

 be said to have measured the extent and virility of American 

 horticulture, and it would not be fair to call it an international 

 effort; but it was good so far as it went, and its influence 

 should be great. 



World's Horticultural Society. — A conspicuous fruit 

 of the horticultural assemblages at Chicago was the organiza- 

 tion of a World's Horticultural Society. The preliminary call 

 for this organization was issued by J. M. Samuels, Chief of the 

 Department of Horticulture, immediately following the Horti- 

 cultural Congress. Invitations were issued to all the prominent 

 horticulturists and to foreign commissioners known to be in 

 attendance at the World's Fair. The meetings were several in 

 number, and they were marked by enthusiasm and an appar- 

 ently unanimous desire for some organic body which shall have 

 facilities for bringing the horticultural interests of the world 

 nearer together. The society, as finally organized, is designed 

 less to hold meetings than to facilitate correspondence and the 

 exchange of information between all countries. The general 

 charge of this great society resides in three officers : The pres- 

 ident; vice-president at large; secretary-treasurer at large. 

 There is to be a vice-president and a secretary-treasurer for each 

 country, who shall direct the affairs of the society in their 

 respective countries. The officers elected at Chicago upon the 

 25th of August, 1893, were: Prosper J. Berckmans, A. M., 

 Augusta, Georgia, U. S. A., president; Henri L. de Vilmorin, 

 Paris, France, vice-president; George Nicholson, secretary- 



