Ornamentals. 



Probably no part of American horticulture is making such 

 rapid progress as floriculture and other branches of orna- 

 mental gardening. This progress springs from both the 

 positive energy of the florists themselves and from a rapidly 

 growing demand for higher standards on the part of the 

 public. There is probably no single factor in our national 

 life which is more auspicious of refinement and love of home 

 and country than this increasing expression of the aesthetic 

 sense. The phenomenal increase in number of flower-shows, 

 and in the appreciation of them by the general public, marks an 

 epoch in our horticulture. Not only every large city, but 

 hundreds of small cities and villages have held flower- exhibi- 

 tions during the year, and almost without exception they have 

 been successful. The shows of some of the smaller cities 

 ng have been marvels of enterprise and skill. This era of great 

 ° f exhibitions must have a wider influence in molding and 

 extending a simple love of flowers and of nature than any 

 movement of previous times. It was but a few years since 

 when flower-shows were financial losses in this country, but 

 now they are eagerly patronized, even when good prices of ad- 

 mission are charged. A second indication of the growing 

 love for plants and ornamental gardening is the increasing 

 demand for practical advice concerning the embellishment of 

 homesteads and city openings, and also the fact that a con- 

 siderable number of professional landscape-gardeners now 

 find constant and remunerative employment. The growth of 

 the idea of the ornamented city park is a conspicious tendency 

 of the later years, and one which has exerted an influence too 

 great for calculation. All these tendencies are matters of 

 pride to every thoughtful citizen, for they show that the Amer- 

 ican is not deficient in that aesthetic taste which has been said, 

 so often, to be foreign to him. The development of a new and 

 great county has thus far absorbed attention, for it is only until 



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