666 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In this work he was assisted by his only son, Rudolf, who was 

 born in 1857, and who became, in 1870, his father's associate in 

 his work. He was the only apprentice whom the elder man initi- 

 ated into the mysteries of his art the only person, therefore, 

 since the death of Leopold Blaschka, in 1895, who possesses the 

 secret of these marvelous productions. Both father and son were 

 diligent and careful students of zoology, and their accurately 

 rendered models met with a ready sale for museums throughout 

 the world, the most complete of these collections being perhaps 

 that which was purchased by the Harvard Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology. 



In 1885 the privilege of constructing for its own use the cen- 

 tral portion of the University Museum at Cambridge was offered 

 to the Botanical Department by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, who 

 has carried so far toward completion his father's plans for a 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. Through the advice and co- 

 operation of Mr. Agassiz, and through the untiring zeal and 

 energy of Prof. George L. Goodale, who succeeded Dr. Asa Gray 

 in the Fisher Professorship of Natural History, the large sum 

 necessary for the construction of the building was obtained by 

 subscription, the result being a most satisfactory structure which 

 furnished ample space for laboratories and for exhibition rooms 

 in which to display illustrations of all the chief types of plants. 

 It was now necessary to provide these illustrations, and no means 

 hitherto employed seemed wholly adequate to the desired end. 



Flowers in all known states of preservation are apt to lose 

 both color and character, and to become unsightly as well as un- 

 interesting. Even if accurately represented by colored drawings, 

 something is still wanting, as they must fail in expressing at 

 least one of the dimensions of space. Gelatin seemed too perish- 

 able a substance to be used, papier-macJie was hardly desirable, 

 and the idea of wax models was altogether distasteful. It was a 

 happy inspiration of Prof. Goodale's when one day studying the 

 beautiful glass models in the Zoological Museum which led to the 

 solution of the problem. If these marvels of the sea could be 

 copied in glass with such beauty and fidelity, why should not the 

 same medium be employed for the models of flowers ? 



Acting promptly upon this suggestion, the next step to be 

 taken was a journey to Dresden for the purpose of making the 

 proposition to the artists. At first Dr. Goodale's trouble seemed 

 likely to prove useless, for he found the Blaschkas most unwill- 

 ing to abandon the making of animal models, which occupied all 

 their time, and for which there was an unfailing demand. 



Up to this time. Prof. Goodale had never seen any glass flowers 

 made by the Blaschkas, and it was during this first visit to their 

 home at Hosterwitz, near Dresden, that his attention was drawn 



