the older ones. We also give you a long article on their culture. While it will enable you 
to grow these lovely little plants successfully, you will also want to get the books by 
_ Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Rector. These books can cover the subject much more completely 
than we can do in this catalog. They will help you to become not merely successful, but 
expert. 
Scilla Peruviana is a bulb for mild climates. They are hardy in Brooklyn, Long 
Island and most of both Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the interior to Va., Ky., to Okla., 
and west. They are fine garden bulbs for the south or for pots in the north but have been 
so neglected or overlooked that our stock built up to more than we can take care of. 
Fortunately we have received orders for a few thousands wholesale. This seems to indi- 
cate an awakening demand. We have lowered the price on these for the present. They 
are very early Spring bloomers outdoors when flowers are not plentiful. 25c ea. or 6 for 
$1.00 is a very low price for these rather large bulbs. 
Do you want some of the newer Daffodils? Then note our listing of Daffodils. We 
have 11 varieties that we must close out as we must discontinue growing them. They 
are priced at 5c ea. for smallest size up to 20c for double nose. They are sorts that usually 
sell for 30c to 50c ea., for small round bulbs. 
Our listing of Iris reticulata at $1.00 doz. is really a “scoop,” as the reporters would 
say. This is the smallest and daintiest Iris and sweetly fragrant. In pots, one can have 
it in flower at Christmas. They are hardy too in milder northern states. 
There are many other items that we would like to mention in this preview of the 
catalog but space does not permit. But we certainly must not omit the present Orchid. 
listings at new lower prices. 
Everywhere amateur growers are succeeding with Cymbidium, Cypripedium and 
Cattleya orchids. One customer wrote to us that he had never seen a Cattleya orchid 
until a friend gave him a poor, sick plant that he was unable to flower. This customer 
had no experience and no culture guide, but he removed it from the pot and cleaned 
the plant and repotted it. He grew it in his kitchen and in two years it flowered. With 
the benefit of proper equipment and correct advice any good gardener can grow them. 
We are offering you Cymbidiums as low as $2.00 per front bulb with foliage. 
Flowering sized Cypripediums are offered at $3.50 to $7.50. Cattleya orchids are listed 
as low as $1.50 and larger ones at $2.50, $3.50 and $5.00. At $5.00 to $7.50 we can 
sometimes send a plant in bud sheath that will soon flower. : 
Hobbies are more important than we sometimes give them credit. Nearly everyone 
collects something or has some other avocation. Even fishing and hunting or playing golf 
may be classed as hobbies. 
No hobby gives more real pleasure than collecting and growing plants. It satisfies 
our collecting instinct; rewards us with beautiful foliage and flowers; gives an incentive 
for physical activity and inspires thought and study. For the old, it helps to keep the 
body and mind active and in good working order. If we do not use an arm it becomes 
small and soft and finally useless. We need to continue to use all our physical and 
~ mental resources or we lose them. 
Growing house plants is of equal value to paraplegics and shut-ins. Younger, healthy 
people who work in either the trades or the professions need the mental relaxation this 
hobby supplies. Any hobby is good but flowers, we think, are the best of all. 
“Reading maketh a full man,’ was not said of modern literature, magazines and 
newspapers, but it is still true. It might be classified as a hobby. Whether it is or is not, 
it is important that we read much. One valuable result is the expansion of one’s vocab- 
-_ulary. The mind of man depends upon the words it knows. Since words are the symbols 
__ of ideas one can scarcely have a definite idea without a word to express it. The mind 
can scarcely rise above the words it knows. Much research has shown that mental power 
and vocabulary grow together at equal pace, but not loquacity, for a talkative person 
may have a small vocabulary. 
I read the other day that 48% of Americans do not read books; 60% do not read 
magazines and 16% never read a newspaper. If true, it explains why we vote as we 
- sometimes do, and why our mass actions are many times unintelligent. The less intelli- 
