PLANTS OH THE WORLD*S FAIR GROUHDS. 139 



lamps will be arranged under the water to show effects not 

 heretofore attempted.' 



"Arrangement. — However good an exhibition may be, 

 there is always an opportunity to criticize it and to draw les- 

 sons for future enterprises of similar character. What the 

 exhibit of hardy plants at the World's Columbian Exposition 

 might have been is hardly worth speculating upon, for it is a 

 thing of the past. For much that was of interest and value to 

 Fair visitors and to horticulturists, all credit should certainly 

 be given to those who were in charge. 



" There were 58 exhibits of hardy plants, aside from 

 roses, on the grounds; of these 9 were from France, 4 from 

 Holland, 3 from England, 1 from Japan, 1 from Hungary, and 

 35 from the United States. The exhibits could properly be 

 divided into two classes : One including exhibits, or those 

 parts of exhibits that were made up of a few plants, of a large 

 number of species and varieties, made chiefly for the purpose 

 of displaying the exhibitor's resources, the other including 

 a large number of plants of a limited number of kinds having 

 a special value for decorative purposes, either on account of 

 their showy flowers, abnormal foliage or peculiar habits. 



" The ground immediately about the Woman's Building 

 was given up exclusively to the French exhibit. A few exhib- 

 its were in the nursery at the east end of the Midway Plais- 

 ance, but the larger number were on the Wooded Island. In 

 this place, which, in the original laying out of the site of the 

 Exposition was not intended for such displays, they were 

 crowded in masses on the edge of existing groups of trees, or 

 they were closely planted in beds, the size and outlines of 

 which were governed mostly by the size and shape of the avail- 

 able grass patch in or near the center of which they were 

 placed. 



" In the nursery on the Midway, and about the Woman's 

 Building, a portion of the exhibits were in rows, a part in 

 crowded beds, and a part standing as individuals. On the 

 island and about the Woman's Building, and in a few cases in 

 the nursery, it was evident that in general the primary motive 

 in the mind of those who arranged the displays, was to secure 

 a decorative effect. The use of such part of a display as was 

 intended for this purpose was, of course, justifiable, but it 

 almost wholly destroyed the value of the display of varieties, 

 for they were so closely planted and so far from the walks, to 

 which the public was closely confined, that even if they had 

 been distinctly labeled the name could not have been distin- 

 guished, and the close examination of growth, bark, buds, 

 foliage, flowers and fruit, which one who is interested in such 



