TJJ'O PRIVATE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOWS. 



"permit me to say that no other crop has within it 

 so much promise and potency as that which we of 

 the South have so long deified as King Cotton. It 

 clothes the world with the cheapest and best gar- 

 ments ; it furnishes the lard for our kitchen, the oil 

 for our salad, the butter for our bread, the soap for 

 our toilet and the candles for our bed-room. It 

 feeds our Jersey cow, it fertilizes our garden and 

 field crops. It paints our houses, dyes our hosiery 

 and makes our ointments. It furnishes us with 

 paper, delicate enough to receive the sweetest strains 

 of whispered love, or strong enough for the wheels 

 of the ponderous locomotive. It gives us thread as 

 fine as the spider's silken web, or strong enough to 

 lash the navies of the world together. Such, now, 

 is this wonderful plant, and who can deny the mag- 

 nificent possibilities of its future?'' "Cotton is 



33 



emphatically the child of the sun and flourishes only 

 in warm latitudes. Its heliotropic tendencies are 

 even more marked than the poetical sunflower. Its 

 leaves receive the first glow of morning light, and fol- 

 lowing the king of day, dismiss it at eve in the west 

 with dewy regrets." 



Whoop ! Up we go in a flurry of smoke and glory! 



And this cotton bulletin continues; "Compost, 

 compost is the word. The modern olympus is a 

 compost heap and the god enthroned on it is called 

 Jupiter Ammoniac." 



Shades of Homer ! Now let us substitute this re- 

 cent mythology for the old, in that august council of 

 the goods before the second battle: — 



Now morn in saffron robes had shed her light, 

 O'er all the earth, when Jupiter Ammoniac, 

 ■ Summoned the Gods to council on the heights, 

 Of the many peaked Manure-pile. 



R. T. Choke. 



TWO PRIVATE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOWS. 



REPORTED BY A LANDSCAPE GAI^DENER AND A FRl'IT GROWER. 



Why is it that many refined 'people of ample 

 means make their homes so attractive in winter as 

 well as in summer that they choose to live in them the 

 year round, in preference to having a city home for 

 the colder months, while other country places become 

 as desolate as bits of Sahara on the approach of 

 winter ? The whole credit may be given to the art 

 of horticulture. This has made the homes attrac- 

 tive and encouraged attention to other arts and 

 created a society that would not perhaps be bound 

 by the claims of horticulture alone. Of such a 

 character is Short Hills, N. J., and our objectiN-e 

 point was the nurseries of Pitcher & Manda, which 

 was merely the natural outgrowth of James K. 

 Pitcher's great love of gardening and of his exten- 

 sive private collections, clustered around a beautiful, 

 hospitable country home, already described in these 

 pages in years gone by. 



The occasion of this visit was a special exhibition 

 of chrysanthemums in November. The advent of 

 the Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, of which this is the home, 

 last season, was the most prominent outburst in 

 favor of this popular flower that has yet occurred, 

 and has done more to attract the public attention 

 than any other one thing, and together with the 

 frequent public exhibitions has resulted in creating 

 a sentiment amounting to a craze. The develop- 

 ments have been no less in the size of the flower 

 than in the variety and blending of colors. Black 

 and blue have, we believe, yet failed to respond to 

 the hybridizer's magic wand, but of white, yellow, 

 cream, straw, bronze, purple, pink, etc., with all 

 intermediate shapes and grades there is no end. 



a bright vivid scarlet perhaps being the most lim- 

 ited and hard to obtain. 



Passing through the palm and orchid houses we 

 came to the entrance of the chrysanthenmm house, 

 where a grand display met our vision. As we 

 wandered through and had about decided on a cer- 

 tain variety as meeting our " ideal," it was only to 

 change our mind at the next step and go on repeat- 

 ing it till the circuit of the house was made. 



The Mrs. Alpheus Hardy was blooming in all 

 her glory in this, her naturalized home. We were 

 surprised to learn that the great bed of plants that 

 filled the centre of the large house with plume-like 

 flowers was from cuttings made in Jime. 



Among the thousands that excited our attention 

 and admiration we noted the following as conspicu- 

 ous for their size and beauty. Of course out of 

 respect to Mrs. Hardy she must head the list of 

 white ones. She was shown in profusion and the 

 largest blooms, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, their in- 

 curved petals covered with their fine delicate hairy 

 pubescence, were decidedly unique. 



Mrs. Geo. Glenny, creamy white, very full and double. 



Robt. Craig, creamy, full double, resembling a pteony. 



Sam. Houston, Sunnyside and Snowball, very large and fine. 



Belle Pointevine, double, 3 inches in diameter, incurved. 



Mad. Louis Percy, large and fine, white 



Adirondac, large, full double, white with center yellow ; fine. 



Alaska, large, very full, center yellow. 



Narragansett, large, very full, center yellow. 



Moonstone, large, semi-double, white, yellow center. 



Shasta, fringed double, refiexed, odd and fine. 



Puritan, large, double, incurved, white and pink. 



Mrs. Frank Thomson, large, white and pink ; excellent. 



Mrs. Tattler, large, white and pink ; fine. 



Lillian B. Bird, delicate cream and pink, double and full. 



J. Collins, pink and bronze, large, full, double. 



