I lO 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
I think Prof. L. H. Bailey’s remarks in this connection 
in his “Annals of Horticulture for 1891,” are not only 
apt and just, but even savor of charity. He says : ‘ ‘ Prob¬ 
ably 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 th-e florists themselves and from a rap¬ 
idly 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.” 
“A second indication of the growing love for plants 
and ornamental gardening is the increasing demand for 
practical advice concerning the embellishment of home¬ 
steads and city openings, and also the fact that a con¬ 
siderable number of professional Jandscape-gardeners 
now find constant and remunerative employment. The 
growth of the idea of the ornamental city park is a con¬ 
spicuous tendency of the later 3^ears, 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 American is 
not deficient in that esthetic taste which has been said, 
so often, to be foreign to him. The development of a 
great and new country has thus far absorbed attention, 
for it is only until the rougher elements of nature are 
overcome that the quieter joys of the garden appeal to the 
popular mind.” 
My object is first to call the attention of the American 
nurseryman to a comparatively new and profitable line 
of plant growing—that of hardy American ornamentals, 
and to describe a few of the best and most noteworthy 
examples of our indigenous trees, shrubs and plants suit¬ 
able for the commercial grower, with special reference 
to the rarer growths of the Carolina mountains. After 
ten years devoted exclusively to the introduction and 
dissemination of our best native growths, I may be 
allowed the privilege of affirming that some of the hardiest, 
most beautiful and most easily grown of all ornamental 
trees and plants are as unknown to the majority of our 
leading professional nurserymen and florists as they are 
to the American gardener, while at the same time, strange 
to say, our American plantsman is perhaps the most 
energetic and pushing of any in the world. 
And why ? I can best answer by again calling to my 
aid Prof. Bailey; * * * “There is a general feeling 
that, as a people, we have not appreciated our native 
plants, and it is probably true that they have been much 
neglected until within very recent years. Many of our 
familiar garden fruits and flowers are of American origin, 
but they have seemed few in comparison to the whole 
number of desirable and tractable native species.” * * * 
“It is not strange that American plants should have 
been first cultivated in England or other parts of Eu¬ 
rope. Horticulture,'especially the growing of plants for 
ornament, reaches its highest development only as the 
face of nature becomes softened by improvements, and 
as institutions become staid and self-sustaining. And it 
has always been true that plants have been first appre¬ 
ciated, as a rule, in countries to which they are strange 
and unfamiliar, for novelty has been quite as important 
as merit in favoring their dissemination.” 
Thomas Meehan, the well-known authority, says : 
“When I came to Philadelphia, in 1847, the introduc¬ 
tions to our gardens were wholly from Europe. It was 
rare to find even an Ameri'can tree, to say nothing of the 
herbaceous plants, even the cultivated varieties of our 
native plants, such as phloxes, pentstemons and 
rhododendrons, came from Europe.” 
Since 1885 or earlier, the increase in demand for or¬ 
namentals of native American growth has been so nota¬ 
ble as to cause repeated and marked comment from the 
horticultural and gardening journals. Of innumerable 
points to be told in their favor, I will but briefly mention 
availability, hardiness, cheapness, ease of culture, free¬ 
dom from disease, graceful and striking contour of 
growths, delicacy of foliage and flower, and, for the pres¬ 
ent at least, novelty. “ Many of our best wild flowers 
are as distinctly novel, as unlike anything Europe fur¬ 
nishes, as our native red man is unlike the Caucasian.” 
Saon our catalogues will not only offer a sprinkling 
of American trees, as they now do, but will share equally 
with the finest exotics, a favorable position and division 
of the space, and embellish their pages with well exe¬ 
cuted cuts that will attract the eye, be a perpetual pride 
to the nurseryman, and inspire the buyer to larger and 
more satisfactory, if not so expensive, purchases. 
Harlan P. Kelsey. 
A GLIMPSE INTO SANTA ROSA VALLEY. 
The frontispiece of this issue presents a glimpse into 
the Santa Rosa valley, California, looking west from 
Rincon heights, showing the southern part of the city 
of Santa Rosa nestled among trees, vines and flowers. 
In the foreground are orchards, vineyards, hopyards 
and fields of corn, grass and ripening grain. 
The valley is here ten miles wide. In the back¬ 
ground are the gently rolling evergreen hills and valleys 
of Sebastopol and vicinity, where grow the finest fruits 
and berries in almost unlimited quantities, which, fresh 
canned and dried, find their way to the various markets 
of the world. Twenty to forty-acre blackberry or straw¬ 
berry patches are not uncommon. The soil is a deep, 
moist, brown, sandy loam, which is easily worked and 
never requires irrigation for any crop. 
In the dim background are the giant redwood for¬ 
ests towering from one hundred to three hundred and 
fifty feet in height, and often twelve to eighteen feet in 
