1902 Letterheads of Three Seed Companies

The end of the 19th century and the early 20th had wonderful letterheads if you enjoy detail!  Pride in their buildings and history is what they want to convey visually. How different from our icon focused business identities now...a swoosh, a squiggle or artfully arranged letters in a distinctive type face.

Look at that barn below!  Octagonal? 

And the train!  

The wagon loaded with seed bags at the store with the impatient horses is a nice touch, too.

What a great historical document.

Above, did you notice they got all seven awards at the Chicago Worlds Fair (The Columbian Exposition) for pure Clover and Timothy?

1876 - Samuel Wilson, Exuberant Seedsman, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Samuel Wilson's ads are delightfully odd.  He was a showman, and his claims and ad styles reflect this.    His Mole Tree ad caught my attention right away for a previous post!  

Personally, I think sticking a face in the center of the flower is sort of creepy.

This next ad, which you probably can't read any better than I can, is included as an example of the DENSE style of ad. How many words can you squeeze into your space??!!

This next melon was a mystery to me...melons all winter??  I didn't know some melons "keep", like winter squashes I guess.  There was another winter melon called Santa Claus :-)

 I did read that chickens would find the seeds a treat during the winter, and the melons also made nice "conserves" (jam).  

I can't leave out the potato that was "Beautiful as an oil painting"!!

Nonetheless, he was a large business and was one of the seedsman that exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.  He was reported as planning to show over a "hundred different types of corn or ear, over 50 varieties of wheat and hundreds of flower seeds".

Below is an excerpt from a family history.

SAMUEL WILSON, dealer in and grower of all kinds of seeds, P. O. Mechanicsville, was born in Buckingham township, in 1824, and is a son of Samuel and Hannah (Longstreth) Wilson.

He is descended on the paternal side from ancestors who originally came from Yorkshire, England, and who for several generations have been members of the Society of Friends.
...
Samuel Wilson was reared on the farm, and when 21 years of age engaged in the mercantile business at Newtown. Five years later he returned and in 1852 built a house on the original tract of land. The same year he was married to Maria Webster, née Burger, by whom he had three children, all living: Samuel Howard, William E. and Mary Elizabeth.
...
In the spring of 1876 be commenced the business of growing seeds, which he has carried on extensively. In 1885 he built a larger seed-house, and erected a three-story stone building, 35 by 60 feet. He employs a large number of hands, and has sale for seeds in all parts of the world. 

His establishment is one of the largest of its kind in this part of the country.
...
Mr. Wilson has served as school director nine years. He is an intelligent and enterprising citizen.

History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; 

edited by J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887.

His successors didn't last long! They kept Samuel Wilson's  name and added "Company" to it.

For those of you who may have come to this page for more ancestry information about Samuel Wilson, here is what I edited out:

The first emigrants of the name came to America about 1683, and settled in Bucks county, and in New Jersey, opposite Bristol and Morrisville.
The first of the family in Buckingham township was Samuel Wilson, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bucks county, January 6, 1706. He moved to Buckingham and took up a large tract of land extending to the Delaware river, and in 1731 built the older portion of the two storied stone house, near the present village of Mechanicsville. In 1729 he married Rebecca, the ninth child of Thomas Canby, whose ancestors also came from Yorkshire, England, and to this marriage were born thirteen children. Of these, the tenth, Stephen, born in 1749, remained upon the original homestead and married Sarah Blackfan, to whom were born eight children.

Of these, the second, Samuel, born in 1785, married Hannah Longstreth, and was the father of the subject of this sketch. The mother of the present Samuel Wilson was a granddaughter of Bartholomew Longstreth, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1679, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1698. He belonged to the Society of Friends, and in 1727 married Ann Dawson, who was born in London and came to America in 1710. By her he had eleven children.


The eleventh child, Benjamin, married Sarah Fussel, daughter of Solomon Fussel, and to this marriage were born twelve children, of whom the ninth child, Hannah, born in 1791, married Samuel Wilson, and had eight children, of whom but two are living: Samuel, and Margaret O., wife of Elias Paxson, of Solebury.

above: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Including an Account of Its Original Exploration, Its Relation to the Settlements of New Jersey and Delaware, Its Erection Into a Separate County, Also Its Subsequent Growth and Development, with Sketches of Its Historic and Interesting Localities, and Biographies of Many of Its Representative Citizens

1860 - More Nice News About Seedsman James J. H. Gregory

Hubbard Squash

James Gregory went out of his way to do good.  

Many sources describing a man who helped his neighbors, thought of future generations, and did his duty in various community organizations in spite of being a busy man convinced me Gregory was a good guy.

The worst I can think of him is that he was occasionally rather presumptive in distributing books on how to live your life.  

People writing about how to live your life is a common, self-centered human drive which usually is usually harmless, even if annoying.  

This post just gathers some more information about his life.

The following is from Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Vol. 4, 1908.

James John Howard Gregory, son of James and Ruth (Roundy) Gregory, was born at Marblehead, November 7, 1827. 

James J.H.  Gregory as a college student in the late 1840s.

Courtesy of Shari Worrell

He was educated in the public schools of his native town, pursued a two years' course at the Middlebury Academy, after which he matriculated at Amherst College, graduating therefrom in 1850. 

His advent into the seed business was almost by accident. He once said of his beginning in the seed business:

 "A man wrote to the New England Farmer for a nice winter squash; I heard of it and we happened to have one; my father called it "Marm Hubbard's Squash" because we got the seeds from an old lady by the name of Hubbard. I sent him some of the seeds: he tried them and so well did he like them that he wrote an article, which was published in a number of papers, describing the good points of the squash. Before I fully realized it I was getting orders for this squash seed from all parts of the United States, and also for many other kinds of seeds and soon found I was doing a thriving seed business."  (Elizabeth Hubbard I later read...)

At first he transacted this in his home, but about the year 1883 built a store, which he enlarged from time to time, his business becoming one of the largest of the country. He sent goods to all parts of the United States and to Canada and the provinces. During the famine in India he was especially active and benevolent. He sent from his store houses large quantities of seed corn, aiding materially in the securing of a new crop for the relief of the starving people. 

"I had a college mate, he said, who was a missionary there and I sent him seeds of the best varieties of American vegetables. He planted and also distributed them among the people. It had such a good effect that the governor of that section of India where he was, sent for, thanked, and rewarded him, and offered him three hundred dollars a month to take charge of the agriculture of the government, but being a missionary he would not accept the offer."

His extensive seed farms located in Middleton comprise over four hundred acres, and he makes a specialty of growing particular varieties for market garden purposes. During the time he was in the business he made a specialty of introducing new varieties of vegetables before unknown to the public. He has written, published and sold many thousands of copies of works on agriculture, and has lectured extensively on this subject before the colleges and seminaries throughout the northern states. Many of Mr. Gregory's clerks have been in his employ for a quarter of a century.

"The Old Squash House"  Moved from Gerry's Island, the 1720 Squash House was originally owned by John Felton and used as a fish shanty. It became famous for the storage of J. J.H. Gregory & Sons squash seeds. Interesting sidelights: Tallulah Bankhead played here with Eugene O'Neil.

(Take a tour of Marblehead using Google street view.  It is a wonderful town!)

Mr. Gregory retired in July, 1907, from the great business he constructed during his long and active business life, and since then has devoted himself to his private concerns and charities. He has always lived modestly, notwithstanding the wealth at his command, and has taken much pleasure and satisfaction in giving away funds for southern colleges and churches and in similar good works. 

He has aided a number of young men to pursue a college education. He presents to every male member of the graduating classes of the colored colleges of the south a character forming book, and has awarded a fund to continue this gift for all future time. He has given books of advantage to the public, at times as many as three thousand volumes per annum, for a number of years, sending them to jails, prisons, etc. 

He has recently given a number of fine engravings to the schools of Marblehead and the Young Men's Christian Association, and twenty oil paintings to the different churches and chapels. He has for many years been a collector of Indian relics of which he has over two thousand, and also of shells of which he has a large collection and a thorough knowledge. 

Mr. Gregory has taken an active interest in public and municipal affairs. He has been one of the generous supporters of all movements of moral or material benefit to his native town. He gave the bell and clock for Abbot Hall in Marblehead. He is a Republican, and in 1876-77 was state senator, elected by the joint vote of the Prohibition and Republican parties.

Mr. Gregory married (first) Eliza C. Bubier; (second) Harriet R. Knight; (third) Sarah Lydia Caswell.    Mr. Gregory has adopted four children: 
1. Edgar, mentioned below. 
2. James H., born Boston, 1873, educated in public schools of Marblehead, spent one year at the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, then went to South America to live with his uncle, James Gregory Carleton, a mining engineer. He enlisted in the Columbian army, being promoted through the various ranks, taking part in a number of battles, and finally being made brigadier-general. He married a Spanish girl and they are the parents of six children. 
3. Annie, married Stephen Burroughs, of Long Hill, Connecticut, and has six children. 
4. Laura, married Simeon Coffin, of Marblehead, and has three children. 

Edgar Gregory, adopted son of James John Howard Gregory, was born at Chelsea,

Massachusetts, December 12, 1869. He received his education in the public schools of Marblehead and the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, graduating from the latter in the class of 1890.

 He became associated with his foster-father in the seed business, and in 1901 was admitted to partnership under the firm name of J. J. H. Gregory & Son and continued thus until the senior partner and founder retired July 1, 1907. 

Since then Edgar Gregory has been sole proprietor though the name is unchanged. He resided at Middleton, where the seed farms were located, until 1908, when he removed to Marblehead and where the place of business is. Mr. Gregory is interested in botany, in which study he took a first prize in college. He is a Republican, and was a member of the school committee in Middleton in 1905. He is a prominent member of the Congregational church of Middleton, is a member of its standing committee and was for three years superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is a member of Philanthropic Lodge of Free Masons, of the New England Order of Protection, Elbridge Gerry Lodge, No. 303, all of Marblehead.
...

From 2014 at WickedLocal Marblehead a brief mention to announce a talk by a Gregory descendent, Shari Kelley Worrel, who, like James Gregory, is very involved in local organizations.

Gregory went on to build a great fortune from his agricultural talents and was quite charitable. Choosing to live on only $300 a year, he used the rest of the money for philanthropic purposes such as sending seed to regions in famine -- India, Nebraska -- and books to colleges serving African-Americans in the South. He also built schools and churches with the money, and was known for leaving free vegetables on the street for the poor.Shari Kelley Worrell, a descendent of Gregory, covers all of this and much more in her 580-page book, “Remembering James J.H. Gregory: The Seed King, Philanthropist, Man.” 

1883, Transactions,   Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Mr. Gregory said that he had been trying to get some one to join with him to collect facts in regard to large and interesting trees in New England, and secure photographs of them. He alluded to the many fine elms in New England, and said that not one is to be found in California. The finest one he had seen is at Weathersfield, Conn.

On motion of Mr. Wetherell, Mr. Gregory was added to the Committee on Old and Interesting Trees.

From Agriculture of Maine. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1913:

GREGORY ORCHARDS - THEIR SOURCE AND AIM.
By A. K. Gardner, Augusta.

As a result of the New England Fruit Show held in Boston in October, 1909, Mr. James J. H. Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., gave to the State of Maine a $1000 first mortgage bond, with the provision that at intervals of five years $200 of the interest should be paid to the orchardist who could show to a committee of three the most excellent orchard of one acre or more grown on his own land, of trees of his own selection (the Ben Davis excepted) five years from setting; the first planting to be in the spring of 1910 and judged in 1915. This most generous offer of Mr. Gregory's induced others to offer like premiums as follows:—

Premium by a friend $15

Bowker Company 100

B. G. Pratt Company 100

Douglas Pump Company 100

Deming Pump Co., Salem, Ohio 50

Charles J. Jager Co., Boston, Mass 50

Portland Farmers' Club 50


This great movement received the hearty support of many of our leading orchard men throughout the State, with the result that a large number entered for the contest, and names were being booked for the acre or more of standard apple trees. Information regarding this contest was published and distributed as follows:—... (link above if you are interested)

1893 - Heroine Peas - A Symphony of Green

When you strip away all the intellectual reasons why I keep poking around in the past after seed related facts and stories, what is left is my delight in the illustrations!

This one is from Peter Henderson's Manual of everything for the garden : Columbian year 1893.

Oh, and by the way, I overlooked the Sturtevant's Parsnip Chervil to Pepper installment, skipping ahead to 1890 - Portugal Cabbage to Rocambole .   Sigh...

I love the lithographic grain.

"Having A Bully Time..."

" When Ezra Cornell called his old antagonist in business, (who had) become his best friend, into the board of trustees of Cornell University, Mr. Sibley saw his opportunity and promptly seized it. He took as his share of the work the foundation of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts."

 

Rowing Medals 

BUST OF HIRAM SIBLEY.

Mr. Hiram Sibley's early days were spent in North Adams, Mass., where he was born on the 6th of February, 1807. After a few years of schooling, before he was 16 years old, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. The trade, however, was distasteful to him, and he entered a cotton factory, and subsequently tried wool-carding and machine work. In 1853, after a number of successful business ventures on his own account, he was elected sheriff of Monroe county, N. Y. After Prof. Morse had put up his first practically operative line, other inventors took up the work, and soon many telegraph companies were established all over the country. Mr. Sibley consolidated these rival interests, and founded the Western Union Telegraph Company, of which he held the presidency for sixteen years. His next great achievement was the erection of a telegraph line to San Francisco from the Eastern States. His other business ventures were of much importance also. In Illinois he owned a farm of 40,000 acres. He was the proprietor of a most extensive seed and nursery business at Rochester, N. Y., which was his home during most of his life. Mr. Sibley was one of the incorporators of Cornell University, and one of its chief benefactors. He died at his home in Rochester, July 12, 1888.

"The world honors men who have inaugurated great enterprises; it doubly honors men who have made great beginnings of grand social movements." It was in these words that Dr. R. H. Thurston referred to the founder of Sibley College, Mr. Hiram Sibley, upon the occasion of the unveiling of a bust of Mr. Sibley in the chapel of Cornell University, on the I5th of June last.

When Ezra Cornell called his old antagonist in business, become his best friend, into the board of trustees of Cornell University, Mr. Sibley saw his opportunity and promptly seized it. He took as his share of the work the foundation of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts. He stepped into the place of honor, and accepted those duties which the State had failed to perform; and Sibley College became the root and sustaining trunk of an enterprise of such importance and of such possibilities as even the wise man who founded it little realized, even though before his death he had the pleasure of witnessing its first great expansion. But it would be an error to suppose that Mr. Sibley's work and munificence were confined to the departure which bears his name. 

When, at the time of Mr. Cornell's death, it was necessary for the university to secure a loan of $250,000 on security, which at that time seemed very doubtful, though it was in the midst of one of the worst financial crises which has ever occurred in this country Mr. Sibley left his own business, came to Ithaca, and was one of the small number of trustees who advanced the sum which disentangled the finances of the university from their troublesome connection with the treasury of the state, and thus began the real prosperity of the institution. To the close of his life Mr. Sibley remained to Cornell University a true friend, a liberal benefactor, a wise counselor.

Mr. MacNeil, who modeled the bust of Hiram Sibley, is a graduate of the Boston Normal School of Fine Arts, and a former instructor in the art department of Sibley College, Cornell University. He is now engaged in modeling for the art department of the World's Columbian Exposition.

Cassier's Magazine, 1892

I feel Hiram Sibley really enjoyed what he chose to do. 

1880s - Mr. Rupp and His Chinese Primroses

 

In 1886 Henry S. Rupp brought his two sons into the florist and nursery business.  

(An earlier catalog at the end of this post, featuring fruits, was before that association.  I included it for the fruit names, something I enjoy reading and thinking about, as I doubt there will be another Rupp post.)

CHINESE PRIMROSES.

Among the best known specialists in the breeding and production of the finest types of Chinese primroses in the United States is John F. Rupp, of Shiremanstown, Pa. He has named his place "The Home of Primroses." Henry S. Rupp, the father of the present head of the business, began the culture of this plant as a specialty at Shiremanstown as early as 1876, and continued it until his death a few years ago, when his son, John F. Rupp, himself a student and artist in this work, continued the business.

The establishment at Shiremanstown consists of six long greenhouses notable not so much for elegance, although they are neat, as for simplicity of construction, and their ability to produce the condition of light and heat necessary to give the best results in primrose culture. The sides are of wood, the roof is of the plain sash bar type, the benches have cement bottoms, and the walks are of concrete. Absolute cleanliness is insisted upon, and no dead leaves or rubbish of any kind is allowed in the houses. All insect pests are kept down by the careful use of cyanide gas. Hot water is the heating medium. Here, under the glass of these six large houses, all the work is done. Thousands of plants are annually grown and sold from 2-inch pots, many hundreds more are brought into perfect bloom and then sold, and still hundreds of others are selected and used in seed production.

The yearly period of seed sowing is from April to the middle of August, and some seed is sown each week in shallow flats containing the ordinary fibrous greenhouse soil to which a little ground bone has been added. In about three weeks after sowing the young plants are 

pricked off into 2-inch pots and in six weeks more these are ready either for sale or for transplanting to the larger pots on the same benches. Some few plants are allowed to mature in the 2inch pots. Fig. 1 shows a fine collection of dwarf plants in full bloom produced in this way. They are contrasted with a standard size specimen growing in a 6-inch pot and placed among them. The three or four flowers on the little dwarfs are nearly as large as those on the standard plants while the few leaves in the picture are very much smaller.

As the plants in 2-inch pots reach salable size, and as the orders come in, they are knocked out of the pots and each, with the ball of earth about the roots, is wrapped in paper. They are then boxed and expressed. Nearly 1,000 packages of these were forwarded last year to all parts of the United States and Canada.

When the orders for small plants have been filled, about double the number required for mature plants and for seed production are then taken. A few weeks' difference in time of seed sowing does not appear to make much difference in the time of blossoming; the-plants will all flower about January. Fig. 2 shows one of the six houses with the plants in full bloom. Some of the varieties Mr. Rupp thinks most of are Delicate Rose, Best Double White, Single Crimson, Double Cristata, and Single Blue. Fig. 3 shows three good specimen plants in full bloom. Best Double White was produced by the late Henry S. Rupp, and won first prize at the Chicago world's fair. Owing to the care in breeding it is still maintained in all its original splendor. Delicate Rose was produced by the present John F. Rupp. Single Crimson is one of the best dark varieties and is an excellent seller.

For the production of seed many thousands of plants are kept to allow for the most rigid selection. Hundreds are from time to time discarded and are not allowed to propagate themselves for faults which the untrained eye can scarcely detect Wrongly tinged or ill shaped petals or petioles, foliage too light or too dark, and lack of vigor are a few of the many points which disqualify a plant for seed production. As the plants are flowered under glass in January, hand pollination is necessary. The ordinary camel's hair brush is used and on the average from 30 to 40 flowers are pollinated per minute. This necessity for artificial pollination permits of the choice of parents in the production of new varieties, and of the employment of the highest skill in plant breeding. A pair of fine plants producing seed are shown in Fig. 4.

Five very important points for which to breed, as stated by Mr. Rupp, are as follows: To get and maintain large size of flowers; to get the flowers thrown up into spikes above the foliage, so as to make a good display; to get the petals well overlapping each other (the best are lapped half the petal or more); to have the edges of the petals perfectly fringed, and, to breed sturdiness and health into the plants.

The general requirements of the Chinese primrose are also given by Mr. Rupp, as follows:

Sunlight.—Not too strong sunlight should be given for foliage and flowers, but for seed development much sunlight is required.

Moisture.—Plants should be kept rather moist except in cloudy weather.

Temperature.—From 55° to 60° F. is best, but the plants will stand much lower temperatures without serious injury.

Soil.—Any good greenhouse soil will do. W. H. W.

 - Gardening, Volumes 15-16 - 1907 

While you may have to be primrose-centric to enjoy reading the following, there is a charm in the delight Mr. Hill takes in describing the display!

Chinese Primroses at the Columbian Fair.

To the Editor of GARDEN AND FOREST:

Sin—The principal midwinter attraction in the horticultural department of the World's Fair has been the Chinese Primroses. About five thousand specimens were shown, filling two greenhouses, each one hundred feet long by twenty-two wide. They have since been placed in the Horticultural Building, and are more accessible to the public. Though awards have been made, the names of those receiving them are not yet given to the public. Seventeen houses competed, six from this country, five from England, four from Germany, one each from France and Italy. The largest lots from America were those of Peter Henderson & Co., New York, R. & J. Farquhar & Co., Boston, and Henry S. Rupp 8:Sons, Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania. The exhibits from England were also large. Those from Germany were from Erturt and Quedlinburg. Four hundred varieties, so called, were said to be shown, but many of these differed more in name than in fact. and half the names would apparently designate the real differences. There was, however, a great variety in the plants as a whole, both in the color and size of the flowers, and in the foliage and general appearance. All were labeled Prim ula Sinensis fimbriata, and flowers without fimbriate margins were exceptional, the greatest number of these being on plants with crisped leaves. As the plants were started from seed sown about the middle of April last, and cultivated under the same conditions, they came into flower essentially at the same time. It was a brilliant display of colors, mostly of the red, white and blue series and their combinations, and caused many exclamations of delight from visitors.

From so much that was excellent it is not easy to choose. The plants from R. H. Cannel & Sons, of Swanley, Kent, were remarkably thrifty, with large flowers and well-developed trusses. Cannel's Pink impressed one as the finest of the lot. It resembled the Queen, with flowers about as large on the average, but of a more decided pink. The leaves are of medium size, arranged so as to set oil‘ the flower-cluster well. The stems were very strong at the base of the cluster of leaves, with no tendency to fall to one side when the pot was tilted. The scapes are not tall nor the flowers umerous, but they rise far enough above the leaves to show e ectively, and offer a charming mass of delicate pink, though the petals are a little multiplied ; they lie so nearly in a plane as to give the flowers the simplicity which is liked by most persons in the blossoms of the Primrose, for those much doubled by the crown of leaves at the throat looked somewhat disheveled even when at their best. Some flowers of the Queen, in‘ the same collection, were the largest noticed in the whole exhibit, measuring fully two and a quarter inches across. Fine flowers of the Queen were also shown by james Carter & Co., High Holborn, London, and by other exhibitors. Other good plants from Swanley, were Swanley Giant, a large rose-colored varietv, White Perfection, Princess Mary, :1 large white with leaves of extraordinary size, Lilacina, exquisitely variable in color, with

delicate tints of lilac-blue. This and White Perfection were of the long-leaved kind.

The purest white seen was in the exhibit of Vilmorin Andrieux et Cie., Paris. It was appropriately named Purity, being perfect in its tone of white. The flowers were of good size, though not of the largest, the truss well placed amid green leaves on purple stems. Many flowers of Mont Blanc, in the same lot, were nearly of as pure a white, but some were faintly blushed with pink, as were some good ones of this name in the exhibit of William Bull, Chelsea, England. The Avalanche, from Mr. Bull, was a large and beautiful white, one of the best. Another good white, Filicina alba, was in the exhibit of Henry Metle, Qiiedlinburg. The plants were tall and strong, abundant bloomers, flowers of fair size, and fern leaved foliage. Other good strains in the sets from Paris were Grand Rose and Grand Blanc Carne, both large-flowered, the pale corolla of the latter with a flush of pink. In the exhibit of Mr. Bull may also be mentioned Pink Beauty, a very handsome pink, with flowers of medium size, those on the lower branches too much covered by leaves for the best effect; Comet, a showy red ; Fulgens, a bright red, with the margins of the petals a little dotted with white,and slightly of the punctate order.

In the exhibit of John Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, London, were a number of good double-flowered kinds. Macros alba plena showed pinkish white flowers and long leaves. Marmorata plena was a double reddish white, the flowers prettily splashed and colored with red or dark pink. The best red in this collection, Chiswick Red, carried very large flowers of a rich dark red, inclining to purple, the greenish eye encircled with a narrow band of white. They were fine, thrifty plants, with large leaves and prolific umbels. The same strain in the lot of Farquhar & Co. was about as good. Crimson, sent by Kelway & Son, Langport, England, was another very bright red, and Vermilion, from Carter & Co., red, and a little punctate. 

The Dark Red of Rupp & Son showed well. There were several reds of the Kerrnesina sort, some quite coppery, and with slight metallic reflections. These, with the salmon reds, carmines, scarlets, purples and other shades, showed the multiplicity of tints into which the color of the original stock had been varied. Dainty flowers of the punctate kind were frequent, with two or three rows of white dots quite regularly placed near their margins, but occasionally scattered. The flowers were generally small, but abundant.

There were blues and lavenders in most of the exhibits which attracted much attention. It is‘barely ten years since the blue race of Chinese Primroses with fringed corollas was established, but the display here made shows that the color is fixed, and comes true from seed. Carter & Co. showed two excellent kinds, London Blue and Porcelain Blue, both large flowered. Haase & Schmidt, of Erfurt, had fine ones labeled Coerulea. Another was the Blue of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie., with purple foliage.

A few sets were seen of a different character, the flaked or striated. They were mainly white-flowered, with lines and spots of various shades of red, in form and size varying from dots and lines to spots covering a petal or even half of the corolla. The colors were mostly too irregularly placed to be harmonious and pleasing, but may point the way to some striking variegated forms. Some plants in the exhibit showed possibilities of yellow flowers by enlarging the yellow of the throat. One in particular was noticed, Oculata lutea (Laing & Son), a singular form of this character, having a large yellow spot enclosed by a border of white or white tinged with red. Even the foliage had a yellow cast.

The most peculiar exhibit was that of Hillebrand & Bredemeier, Italy. They were very distinct in foliage, with leaves remarkably crisped, their lobules having the parenchyma very full, so as to be formed into a frill or ruffle. To some extent this characterizes the calyx also. The leaves are symmetrical in form, from oval to oblonge in some cases, their color varying from pale green to dark purple. They are beautiful-leaved plants, as handsome and decorative in their way as are the fine-flowered kinds. The flowers are generally single, mostly small, and often without the fimbriated margin. One of the most crisped was Candidissima, white-flowered and with purple foliage. Carnea has flesh colored corollas, the yellow eye enlarged and star-shaped, and the foliage green. A view of these plants led one to think that the perfect Primrose would be one combining the crisped leaves of the Italian growers with the fine flowers seen in the collections from northern Europe.

Too much praise can hardly be given to Mr. John Thorpe for the cultural skill which has brought forward this immense collection in such uniform health and vigor. 

E. J. Hill, Englewood, Chicago, Ill. (1893)