and he ha 3 also servea as trie president of the 
v'ociety of Iowa P^lorists. itie is a life mem¬ 
ber of the American Genetic Association and 
has been a member of that organization since 
its inception. He is a life member of the 
Iowa State Horticultural Socievy (also a life 
member of the Northeastern Iowa Horticul- 
-ural Society) of which he served as president 
and also as secretary for a number of years. 
By virtue of reading a paper entitled “Mod¬ 
ern Gladiolus Growing” at an annual conven¬ 
tion of the Iowa State Horticultural Society, 
tnis title by a slight change became the name 
of the first magazine devoted to Gladiolus 
which was published under that name for sev¬ 
eral years. 
He was the first hybridizer in the Middle 
West to display seedlings (at the State Fair) 
showing the progress that had been made in 
introducing new colors w^hich were composed 
of tints and shades of blue and yellow'. It 
was always the idea of Mr. Black that quite 
a large stock of any new variety should be 
grown before introducing it and as he never 
believed in high prices for novelties his own 
varieties were introduced at really nominal 
prices.” 
I'riend Gersdorff has tailed to mention a 
part of my life which is more important to 
me than all things else in the world. 
All our customers with whom I have per¬ 
sonal correspondence know that I address 
them “Friend” which I consider more inti- 
