With these as a stock to work upon, they, by selecting seed from plants only which indicate the points they wish more fully to develop, and by letting " patience have her perfect work," sometimes even astonish themselves with the progress made. And then, the professional florists pursue their calling with a devotedness and zeal worthy of the cause in which they are engaged. Their local, provincial, and metropolitan shows; their published standards of flowers for the guidance of growers, competitors, and judges at exhibitions; these reasons, and many more which could be given, have served to place floriculture in a high position indeed in that country.

As already hinted at, floriculture is not so high in public favor in America as its best friends would wish; not that any one class in the country is directly to blame, but rather it has not had sufficient time to grow. Of course, while in this state much can be done for its advancement, by professional florists especially. Who are they, and what is their mission? Are they not the administrators of its laws, the monitors in its schools, the professors in its seminaries, and the men above all others, from the positions they occupy, who mold and give complexion to public sentiment and taste in things relating to their profession 1 There are many good and true florists throughout the country who fully sustain this character, and I have no doubt but Mr. Pentland is one of them; but these may live far apart, and be jostled on every side by quite an inferior class, who, being "Blind of one eye, and with the other squint," bring every thing relating to the business into disrepute in the estimation of "the discerning public," and cause them to look even beyond the seas for a redress of the grievances inflicted upon them by those who may be good and honest enough in their intentions, but not sufficiently indoctrinated in the secrets of the art to make them reliable guides to such as need a better judgment than their own to lean upon.

Mr. Pentland is not insensible to the low state of floriculture in the country, but surely he must be mistaken in attributing the cause thereof to the "pandering to European opinion." If it had been in a worse condition in Europe than it is here, and the people obstinately persisted in turning their faces toward the cast in search of something to admire, not from any inherent value in those objects, but blinded and led away by the names by which they may be called, then it might in justice be said of them, they are the veriest "panderers," and their conduct savors rankly of " toadyism." But when the opposite of this is true, as could be proved to the satisfaction of every candid mind, we can not help thinking that, instead of this leaning upon European opinions being a check upon your own progress, it has been a principal power in craning up public taste to the position it now occupies. It may be true that certain parties have shown their "gullibility " by refusing to pay a high price for American seedlings until they received European names; but this militates no more against the position we seek to establish, than a hypocrite in society does against the fact of honest men being there also. or counterfeit coin in a country against the genuine and true metal.

Docs not the one rather prove that there is virtue in the one case to be simulated, and value in the other to be feigned 1 Perhaps redundancies grow out of the system which would be better pruned away; but how these manifest themselves I do not know, and humbly think Mr. Pentland has hitherto foiled to point them out.

We believe a new era in floriculture is at hand, but even during that period, the practice of collecting flowers, new and good, will not be stopped, but receive a fresh impulse from every forward movement it makes. And instead of complaining of this as "humiliating " to yourselves, it seems to me a reason why you ought to feel proud. Humiliating, forsooth! Viewing the question in this aspect, the Europeans must have well-nigh reached the nadir of their humiliation. What country in the world have they not explored in search of new plants? as witness the labors of Humboldt, and Bonpland, Tweedie, and Lobb, and Douglass, (poor Douglass!) and Fortune, and Veitch, (Exeter Veitch.) They are grateful to you for your magnificent trees, beautiful shrubs, and interesting herbaceous plants; and, bating these, you sent them their first white verbena, as well as many other things really valuable, for which they have not been ungrateful. Why, then, think it " humiliating " to take from them in return their greatest novelties and newest patterns 1 These, added to everything good of your own raising, must enhance the value of your stock, and multiply your chances of keeping forward in the march of improvement.

The fact that there is a demand for every thing good in the way of new flowers, come from what quarter they may, speaks well for the state of public feeling, and unmistakably indicates a better time for floriculture than any that has gone before. And although the portentous omen Mr. Pentland calls "pandering" has spread itself over the whole floricultural heaven,'frightening timid souls with imaginary evils, it is surcharged with no influences hurtful to your interests, but is only a "sable cloud " that "Turns forth her silver lining on the night".

And even now gives out as much light as to show your own entanglement, and the way of escape to a more hopeful and better-ordered state of things.

[We are by no means disinclined to have this subject continued, for we can perceive wherein much good may come from it. In the end there will be established a greater unanimity than has heretofore prevailed, and a better understanding of the whole subject. - Ed].