THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
5 
and also with C. incision of Klotsch, which comes near 
to it in proportions. The leaves are from two to three 
inches in length, coarsely toothed, and of a fresh green 
color. The flowers are pale green before expansion, and 
afterward snowy white, the filaments purple, the sta¬ 
mens blue. Its flowering season is May, and it does not 
continue so long in bloom as many of the other species. 
This tribe of plants is very subject to the attacks of 
insects, especially of the red-spider, thrip, and mealy bug. 
It is, therefore, necessary to keep a sharp lookout, and 
by copious syringing and a moist atmosphere, to keep the 
enemy at bay. In growing C. Balfonrii in the garden 
during summer we have not been troubled in the least 
with any of these pests. 
PLANT AND SEED GROWERS. 
Part VII. 
P LANT-GROWING as an industry in this country is a 
modern institution. But a few years ago greenhouses 
were only to be found near our larger cities, and bore but 
little resemblance to the vast floral establishments of to-day. 
The rapid development of this industry is, indeed, mar¬ 
velous. The village now without its greenhouse is a rarity, 
for plants and flowers are no longer regarded as luxuries— 
they are necessities ; they minister to our wants quite as 
much as what we eat, drink or wear. We remember well 
when the village garden was conspicuous because of the 
Beans, Peas, Corn and Cucumbers it produced ; there was 
little room then for flowers, for there was no necessity for 
them, because the ideal was not developed in our natures, 
and the actual was everywhere apparent. Flowers then 
would have been an innovation, but to-day in the village 
garden vegetables are more apt to be intruders, which is 
as it should be, for they minister only to a temporary 
want, an appetite which is soon satisfied, while the flowers 
minister to an appetite that is insatiate, yet easily 
satisfied. 
Every year shows marked changes in the plant industry. 
Formerly our greenhouses were, in a limited degree, botan¬ 
ic gardens ; in fact, that was what they were usually called, 
and forty years ago nearly every owner of a greenhouse 
was a botanist. Then those that were engaged in the 
business took it up because of their love for it. To-day 
the plant-grower and the botanist are in a great measure 
strangers, and the business is conducted as any other busi¬ 
ness, because it pays. Then miscellaneous plants filled 
every greenhouse ; variety seemed the great object, some¬ 
thing to please every fancy—the greater the variety the 
greater the reputation of the grower. To-day there may 
be found more plants in a single private collection near 
New York than could be found fifty years ago in all the 
greenhouses within ten miles of New York City. This 
remarkable increase in the demand for plants and cut- 
flowers has so systematized the business that it has be¬ 
come purely mechanical. Florists and plant-growers 
have become specialists; there are those who grow 
nothing but Roses, others Carnations, still others Orchids 
and rare exotics, while many devote themselves to the culti¬ 
vation of what is popularly known as bedding-plants, which 
are used in vast quantities for garden and lawn decora¬ 
tions. There is a still wider division which forms two 
distinct classes in the ranks of plant-growers—the one 
that propagates and disseminates, the other that origi¬ 
nates. As a rule, our greatest plant-growers know the 
least about the plants they grow; they know what Rose 
will be likely to be in demand the coming winter, because 
they have ascertained in advance what colors are to be 
worn, and have filled their houses with Roses to match, 
and their appreciation of the Rose is in proportion to what 
the buds bring in the market. We wish to speak at 
the present time of the originators of new forms, and 
prominent among them are 
MESSRS. V. H. HALLOCK, SON & THORPE, 
Queens, N. Y„ who, while largely engaged in the 
dissemination of plants, rank first, either in this country 
or in Europe, in the list of originators of new varieties of 
Geraniums, Carnations, Chrysanthemums and Gladioli, 
There may be others who would be willing to contest the 
field with them in any one of these classes, but in the 
combination it is safe to say they take the lead. In all 
business operations where several persons are engaged, 
there is, or should be, a division of labor, in order that each 
may make a specialty of his work, and give it his undi¬ 
vided attention. In this firm the work of the hybridist 
devolves upon John Thorpe, Esq., a gentleman who has 
made plant physiology a lifelong study, and whose keen 
perceptive faculties, which readily distinguish form, size 
and color, together with an innate love of the beautiful in 
nature, render him eminently fitted for the work he has 
chosen to perform. 
The work of the hybridist is but little understood, and 
still less appreciated; The general idea is, that hybrid¬ 
ization is for the purpose of securing new forms, colors, 
or various combinations of both, in order that we may 
have more beautiful flowers or more delicious fruits. 
Such, indeed, is one of the objects of hybridization ; there 
is another, however, and a more vital one. It is upon 
hybridization, or cross-fertilization, which is a more 
proper term, that the life and health of our plants depend. 
Unless this system is carefully kept up, and the most 
careful selections of parent plants is made, deterioration 
will be manifest in every form of plant life. Cultivators 
as a rule do not pay sufficient attention to the careful 
selection of the plants from which they wish to save 
seeds. In fact, the laws of vegetable physiology are 
wholly ignored, and intelligent selection, the only road 
to floricultural success, is lost sight of. Herein lies Mr. 
Thorpe’s success as an originator of new varieties. It is 
a simple thing to cross-fertilize flowers ; it is quite another 
matter to do it intelligently. One might as well com¬ 
pound drugs taken at random from the shelves, and ex¬ 
pect good results from the mixture, as to take plants 
indiscriminately from the greenhouse, fertilize their 
