The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-02-04

"Great American Dessert" You may
also note the effect of 5000 or 5000 feet
of elevation, and of rainless summers,
where water is supplied only by irriga-
ton, as shown in the beautiful tables of
the California exhibit. You may con-
trast the apples from California orchards,
where severe freezing is unknown, with
those from trees which have to endure
forty below zero in Wisconsin or the
province of Quebec. You may study En-
glish apples as grown in England and in
all parts of the American continent.
You may study Russian apples as pro-
duced i'll the interior of Russia and the
interior of America. In fact, the sug-
gestiveness and educational value of this
great show of the worlds fruits, which
we have brought together from so many
countries, is almost without limit. 1t
might have been made more complete if
more people had believed in its success
or appreciated its importance, and had
co-operated for it's success. As it is, we
may take some pride i'll what we have
done and may rest in the calm assurance
that we have given an essential service
to horticulture as science and as great
commercial pursuit.
Our efforts in organizing this ex-
hibition have not been confined mainly
to securing a great range of varieties of
fruits, but have been even greater to Sc
cure varied and opulent show of plants
and trees from many countries. In this
too, we have succeeded in gratifying
measure, but not equal to our wish. l
fear that in this respect some of you
may have expected impossible things.
If you expected that we could transplant
To-, |.
dens of New Orleans and have them
present all the luXuriance and beauty in
their new locations which they had when
standing in the places where they had
grown for years, then you expected
things which no man has ever yet ac-
complished. And much less has it been
possible to bring the great palms of
South Florida, Jamaica and Mexico
here, or their wonderful cacti, or agaves,
or their beautiful tree ferns, or their
curious orchids, or any other of the
great catalogue of their tropical beauties,
and to preserve the luxuriant verdure
and bloom of their native conditions. If
anybody has expected this, it was a
foolish expectation, doomed to disap-
pointment.
What we have hoped to do was to
BILE products from the most distant coun-
tries and the most diverse climates, and
show them side by side; for their beauty,
so far as we could preserve it, but espec-
tally for their instructive interest to the
student of botany, or of the Worlds in
dustrial resources. We have not hoped
to present you with conservatory filled
with all the bewildering luxuriance of
tropic bloom and beauty, such as you
will see where a generation of care has
been given to the development OF each
delicate and eXacting plant. A tropical
garden, perfect lawn, complete and
finished park, cannot be made in three
months.
But we have collected some very valu-
able plant exhibits. We can show you
over forty varieties of palms, some of
them forty feet in height, and still hold
ing a portion of the burden of fruit
which began to grow in the summer
islands of Florida. We can show royal
palms, which six weeks since helped to
fringe with their delicate fronds the trop-
ic shores of Mexico. We offer you
very valuable collection of plants from
the Botanic Garden of Jamaica, and we
invite your inspection of the magnificent
collection of plants and trees, embracing
over 700 species, which constitute the
California tree exhibit. The very extern
siye exhibits of cacti from Texas and
Mexico are attracting great and deserved
attention. In fact, we have many ex-
hibits in this division which will reward
your attention. l will mention two of
great interest which are not yet in condi-
ton to be appreciated. One is the valu-
able and complete collection of Ameri-
can grape vines, scientifically classified,
which is the contribution of our esteem
ed horticultural friend from Texas; the
other is the magnificent exhibit ofDutch