g8 FLOWERS /A 



hundreds of flowers tea single plant, by which process 

 they are still further dwarfed. By carefully cutting 

 off the first crop of flowers, the plants will reward you 

 with a second crop, slightly inferior in size to the first 

 blossoms. J . ToRREY Connor. 



Los Angeles Co. 



CALIFORNIA STATE FLORAL EXHIBITION. 



Victoria, Roses, Chrysanthemums. — Our California 

 State Floral Society held its exhibition in the new 

 Academy of Sciences in November. The palms, bam-, 

 boos and ferns in panels adorn the walls ; the electric 

 light gleams on the great leaves and white, rose-centered 

 Victoria regia, whose petals open and fall over, one by 

 one, as we gaze, until the pink heart of the white lily is 

 revealed. The seed vessel is like a mossy acorn cup, 

 and the seeds, which are about the size of peas, are 

 arranged around the sides — not at all like the watering- 

 pot top of the pink and white nelumbium or lotus seed 

 vessel. Five or six of the Victoria regia, with a number 

 of lotuses, have been blooming in the conservatory at 

 the Golden Gate park the past week. 



The vivid colors of the flowers are set off by the 



Fig. 2. Eye of the Serpent or Medusa. 



asparagus, fern and wildwood bark, all arranged in the 

 wilderness style of highest art. The Turkish rose, the 

 most fragrant, and from which the attar is made, is 

 there, bearing a dozen small white flowers with straw- 



CALIFORNIA. 



colored centers. The flowers are not very double, and 

 are about an inch and a-half across. The leaves of the 

 plant are pale green. Shown beside this is the bright 

 pink of Marquise de Viviens and the gold of W. A. 

 Richardson. It is wonderful to see the roses in such 

 full bloom now in Marin county, where they have had 

 no watering at all for many months. A few wild flow- 

 ers are also in bloom. The Yucca gloriosa has pink 

 buds and is in more crowded and compact panicles than 

 the Y. filame)itosa oi the eastern gardens. 



A new kind of large, white, single dahlia, drooping in 

 bud, stem and flower in lily form, is beautiful. Its 

 broad, white, curving petals are beaded with pink. 



The Mina lobata wreaths of yellow pendents and 

 bright red buds, and the new dwarf Phlox Druiumoiidii 

 of Quedlinburg, with white eye and white margins of 

 its incised, dark purple petals, were interesting. 



The large display of chrysanthemums was the finest I 

 ever saw; new importations came from Japan in end- 

 less variety. California was the name on large golden 

 globes, looking like Cuba oranges stuck on leafy sticks, 

 each petal closely curved over the other into a perfect 

 sphere. The Margaret B. Harvey, named after the 

 black-eyed writer, is very handsome; its wide, deep 

 crimson rays, three inches long, showed their golden 

 reverse sides at the curling tips, spreading forth and 

 curving downward from the green-gold center. The 

 pure white Ostrich Plume is very large and beautiful, 

 with the fine downy-prickly growth on the reverse of 

 its numerous incurved rays, similar to the Mikado that 

 bears Mrs. Alpheus Hardy's name. The similar pink 

 one is not so lovely. The Black Prince is six inches 

 across, its petals dark crimson purple. Some of the 

 flowers measured ten inches across when the rays were 

 straightened out, but when I speak of the size, I mean 

 as the flowers appear on the plant. To the ordinary 

 observer, the white Niagara (Fig. i, page 97) and 

 Yosemite Falls would seem like faded beauties, their 

 drapery veiling their faces, a la Skye terrier; but they are 

 charming as they bud and blossom out and bend over in 

 glistening curves. 



The Flying Cranes' Feathers are fine and long, and 

 spread straight out in every upward direction. One 

 that is too pretty to be called the Eye of the Serpent 

 (Fig. 2) has tubular quilled rays, two and a-half inches 

 long, of bright yellow color. It opens at the curving 

 tips and shows deep pink within, from a greenish disk. 

 Another, with similar, but short rays, has a beautiful 

 sparkling center, two and a-half inches across, of pink 

 and yellow quills. Still another is pale pink with quill 

 rays that are curled and incised like deer antlers, and 

 bears the appropriate name of Elk-horn. Thousand 

 Sparks (Fig. 3, page gg) is a good new anemone sort. 



The exhibition remained open three days, and gave 

 great pleasure to the lovers of flowers in San Francisco. 



San Francisco. K. P. S. Boyd. 



