With the progress

for those who wish to cut bouquets of roses. of improvement we shall get better roses, and many of the old ones will be discarded. Mr. Hovey said that instead of opposing the introduction of new things he had been one of the few to purchase every novelty of any merit, and had very dearly bought many worthless things. In planting two thousand pear trees he included among them only six Bartletts. La Reine is not excelled by any other rose of its color. Niphetos is in all the stands of twelve Tea roses. With one shoot of ten buds of a new rose we can make ten plants by budding, but the stocks will sucker and rob the grafts, and when we can get them on their own roots we should endeavor to do so. In Europe standard roses, grafted high, have gone out of fashion.

Mr. Moore said that Messrs. Cranston, Turner, and Paul, three of the largest English rose growers, prefer plants on the Manetti stock for all purposes. The Hybrid Perpetuals make as great a show in the garden in June as any, and we get the later flowers in addition.

Mr. Hovey said that M. Sisley does not use the Manetti stock. The speaker thought that such roses as the immense Paul Nerons, exhibited by the President, were rarely produced without heading down the plants so early that the first crop of flowers was sacrificed. He knew a gentleman at Newport, who has a large plot of Gen. Jacqueminot, which he thus heads down for the sake of getting fine late flowers.

66

William Gray, Jr., being called on by the President as the champion rose grower," said that he understood the objectof the meeting to be to get lists of the best roses, but this was impossible at so short notice. We must grow many kinds for many years before we can decide on the best. In 1874 he thought Mlle. Marie Rady the best rose of the year, but he has not had one in a prize stand since. Pierre Notting was fine, but he has not had one in his prize boxes for years. The only object in testing the new roses sent out from year to year is to ascertain those worthy of cultivation here, which are but a small proportion of the whole. Those of 1877 have not been tried long enough, but are more promising than those of several previous years. If we make lists of roses which can be relied on we must include many of twenty years' standing. Nine out of ten of the new French roses are scarcely heard of after a few years. He would have his roses on Manetti stocks, to give

them a start, and plant the stocks two inches under ground, when they would root from the graft.

Mr. Hovey said that Mr. Gray had presented actual facts which confirmed his views. We want kinds, both of fruits and flowers, whose characters are fixed and known. If any variety gives us roses only once in six or eight years, it is of little value. agreed with Mr. Gray, that roses get started sooner on Manetti stocks.

He

Hon. Marshall P. Wilder commended the spirit in which the discussion had been carried on today. He agreed exactly with what Mr. Hovey and Mr. Gray had said. The Manetti stock is a wretched thief, owing to its profuse suckering. He desired to correct the impression which some appeared to have received, that he is not a progressive man. He wanted to put his hand on every new thing he saw mentioned in the newspapers, and obey the maxim to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. Few rose growers have Mr. Moore's peculiar soil, but he admits that manure is the great thing. The speaker expressed surprise that so few new roses had been raised in this country, where, under our bright sun, everything perfects its seed with ease; but we shall do it in the future. Ellwanger & Barry have crossed Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses, and he was glad to hear that Mr. Hovey had done the same. He exhorted all to go on and raise new roses, and then their names would go down to posterity fragrant with the results of their labors.

Mr. Hovey said that more had been done in this country in the way of raising new roses than Mr. Wilder's remarks would imply. He had lately been over the history of rose culture in this country for the last forty years, and had prepared an article on the subject for "The (London) Garden," beginning with a variety raised by Mrs. Herbemont, from the Musk Cluster, which has been one of the parents of all the improved Prairie roses. The latter were originated by Samuel Feast, of Baltimore, and Joshua Pierce, at a time which Mr. Wilder would recollect, when the Boursault was the only climbing rose. Joshua Pierce, of Washington, raised fifteen varieties. The Isabella Sprunt is a sport of Safrano, discovered by the Rev. James Sprunt, of Kenansville, N. C., some years previous to 1865. Mr. Pentland, of Baltimore, raised the George Peabody, a Bourbon rose. Prof. Charles G. Page, of Washington, raised the Cinderella, and others. William Boll, of

New York, raised hundreds, if not thousands of kinds, most of which he sent to France. Among his seedlings were the Washington and Madame Boll. In 1877, came the American Banner, a sport from the Bon Silene. Mr. Hovey said he had thought lately of attempting to raise seedling roses, but the French are so far in advance of us, that he had done little for the last twenty or thirty years.

President Hayes remarked that the veteran horticulturist, Mr. Wilder, was himself a perpetual blooming rose.

F. L. Harris said that they do not grow a great many roses at Wellesley. The soil there is similar to Mr. Moore's, but they have not the fertilizers for rose growing. The speaker questioned whether Mr. Gray, and other rose growers, had not committed an error in forcing such luxuriant growth on their plants. He would concentrate the growth in the production of hard wood; and, with this view, he used when they started away from the bud, to rub off the strong shoots. This late, excessively vigorous growth does not ripen. Last year was the worst for roses that he ever knew, which was owing to the failure to ripen the wood the previous autumn. His experience led him to advise thinning out the wood. William H. Spooner said that, a year and a half ago, President Gray exhibited very fine specimens of the Pierre Notting rose, and the only difficulty with this variety is that it is apt to burn.

Mr. Hovey thought it would have been well to speak of this discussion as of "roses for exhibition purposes." As long as we seek to grow roses for exhibition as big as a plate, we shall get only two or three from a strong shoot. We want plenty of roses, and the secret is in well ripened wood. These excessively strong shoots come" blind," and should be taken away when young. It is hard to divert the current of sap after it has got into one of them.

Mr. Wilder said that we want to preserve for all time, those roses which have proved their title to a permanent place, such as the old Yellow Tea, which has been known for nearly two hundred years, Bon Silene, Safrano, Dr. Andry, Baron Prevost, Maréchal Niel, and similar varieties, the last named of which, he said, would endure for generations. The Gen. Jacqueminot is not a rose of high character when opened, but for certain purposes it has a high value. A hundred thousand flowers of this variety are This rose has taken its place.

sold in a year.

The President gave notice that on the next Saturday, John E. Russell, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, would speak on "Tropical Fruits and Flowers," and expressed a desire that the community might be better informed of what the Society is doing to disseminate horticultural information by means of these discussions, believing that if the interest of the meetings were understood the room would be crowded.

BUSINESS MEETING.

SATURDAY, January 22, 1881.

An adjourned meeting of the Society was holden at 11 o'clock, PRESIDENT HAYES in the chair.

The President announced the list of Special Prizes for Essays, offered by the Committee on Publication and Discussion for the current year, with the approval of the Executive Committee.

Adjourned to Saturday, January 29.

MEETING FOR DISCUSSION.

Agreeably to the announcement on the previous Saturday, John E. Russell, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, spoke on Tropical Fruits and Flowers. A severe snow storm prevented as large an attendance as usual, and Mr. Russell remarked that while he would have been pleased to see the room filled, he was surprised that so many persons were present. He feared that he should be unable to dispel the cold and gloom of the storm by stories of tropical warmth. "Who can hold a fire in his hand by thinking of the frosty Caucasus?"

Some time ago he spent several years on the isthmus which has no special name, extending seven hundred miles from Yucatan to Darien. This differs from any other part of the tropics. We speak of Southern Georgia and Florida as sub-tropical, and of the leeward and windward islands of the West Indies as thoroughly tropical, but all these are exposed to cold blasts from the north, which carry such a chill that in Cuba, where there was no fire except in the kitchen, and no means of keeping warm, he went to

bed to escape the effects of a "norther." During the present winter, orange trees have cracked with the frost in Florida, and he had noticed the same thing in Louisiana-a damage, however, which is easily repaired. But Central America, south of Cape San Antonio, is beyond danger of cold blasts from the north. The waters of the Carribbean Sea are never chilled, and the climate of Central America does not vary more than five or six degrees; the lowest the speaker had noticed was 75°, and the highest in the shade, 82°. Here, we consider such a temperature agreeable and equable, and the speaker, when sweating on the hills of Worcester county, under a higher temperature, had longed for the tropical sun of Central America to cool off in. There, there is never a blast that can destroy vegetation.

Though the isthmus is only one hundred and seventy-five miles wide, it possesses a great diversity of climate. On the Atlantic coast it rains every day, while fifteen miles inland, the rainy season begins in April and ends in November. The rain does not fall incessantly, but so regularly every day that the hour can almost be fixed, and arrangements can be made for picnics or horticultural exhibitions without fear of interruption from the weather. These table lands are the inhabited lands of Central America. The speaker was much interested in the remains of ancient races found in these countries-cities, palaces, and hieroglyphics which could have been made only by a highly civilized people. In the depths of the forest the explorer meets the images of forgotten gods, and almost expects their worshippers to reappear.

The temperature of this region is about that of a conservatory here; and the luxuriance of the tropical vegetation language utterly fails to describe. A single plant will present the appearance of an enormous lilac or rhododendron, with gay bulbous and other flowers beneath, and vines over all, and orchids interspersed. The climate and soil produce indigenous plants of the greatest value to mankind, among which are maize and the castor-oil plant, which grow in the greatest profusion.

Mr. Russell next gave a description of particular plants, beginning with the pineapple. Few people are aware of the manner of growth of this so-called fruit, which is not a fruit in the common acceptation of the term, and botanically is described as a multiple or collective fruit, the constituent flowers having become sterile