58 



Annals of Horticulture. 



again to seethe attempt at the 'something new' ; many of our 

 decentralized shows even in our populous centers are going 

 down simply because of the want of the ' something new. ' The 



The visitors in effect say : ' There is no cause of us going to such 

 show! an d such a show ; there are the same plants from the same 

 people year after year, and the thing is becoming far too 

 monotonous.' Many people, again, who have no particular 

 desire for seeing flower-shows, will not go simply because 

 their friends, who are better informed than themselves, stay 

 away because the advanced taste for novelty is not sufficiently 

 catered for. Crowds flock round where the traffic is densest 

 to satisfy their curiosity as to what others are looking at, and 

 this has been the case in the respective shows which we have 

 visited where the plants are arranged in groups for effect. 

 To young gardeners particularly, and we might say even to 

 old articled gardeners, these groups furnish object-lessons 

 which, if properly looked into, will tell upon their practice 

 many days hence. Of course the ordinary classes need not 

 be sacrificed ; but the principal prizes ought undoubtedly to go 

 to the groups, and supposing these groups were offered in a 

 series of three divisions, it would call up the various garden- 

 ers in small as well as in large places to try their hand to win 

 the respective 6 blue ribbands.'" 



The carpet-bedding movement appears to have passed its 

 zenith. At least, it is coming to be properly understood — 

 to be considered not as an end, but simply as a small and com- 

 paratively unimportant part of a system which in the main 

 follows freer and more natural methods. 



People are coming more and more to love plants for their 

 own sakes, and this desire finds gratification in the increasing 

 number of native plants introduced to the garden, and in the 



01d new forms of old favorites. A reference to the census of 

 favorites. American plants in a succeeding part of this volume will show 

 the extent to which gardeners have drawn upon our native 

 resources ; and it is only necessary to consider the improved 

 varieties of lilacs, hollyhocks, zinnias, portulacas, asters, 

 poppies, marigolds, sweet-peas and many other species, to re- 

 mind my reader to what extent the old-time flowers are find- 

 ing places in modern gardens. Probably no exhibition of 

 flowers could be so popular as one which should confine its- 

 self to the old-fashioned plants. 



