THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE 



45 



A BOUQUET OF EVERLASTINGS. 



hilating" the beautiful white herons. We 

 who are naturalists tried to stop it, and 

 our warden was shot." 

 "Milliners shoot him?" 



"I didn't say so ; vou suggested that," 

 I replied. "Can't hang milliners on such 

 circumstantial evidence. But the mil- 

 liners must have something new ; the 

 white herons for egrettes were either all 

 gone or the others so guarded as not to 

 be obtainable in the quantities desired. 

 So I went to a biological laboratory, and 

 there all along the shore in company with 

 the biologists were the milliners collect- 

 ing marine animals for— 



"What, what, what!" again interrupt- 

 ed the A. R. "Now you're not in ear- 

 nest ; you can't stuff me that milliners 

 were after fish market stuff for hats." 



That's exactly it," I replied. "You 

 describe it nicely ; it even smells fish 

 market when first unpacked from the 

 boxes and before it is aired on the hats. 

 The scientific people call the animals 

 Sertularian hydroids, and say there 

 were hundreds of them in a colony. 

 The milliners call the material Parisian 

 moss, and it has been having 'a run.' 

 You see the milliners so hasten from 

 place to place, that I want to get them 

 into the garden, or where the greater 

 the demand the greater may be the cul- 



tivated supply, like the ostrich plumes, 

 but not like egrettes and Parisian 

 moss. So I'm going to grow millin- 

 er). Perhaps I shall set a new fashion 

 and the milliners will make raids on gar- 

 dens for millinery supplies." 



"Saw now, what are you drivin' at? 

 You seem to be 'off worse than usual 

 this morning. Are you jokin' or only 

 foolin' ?" 



"Perhaps both; perhaps neither. I 

 am raising a 'full line' of all the plants 

 with everlasting flowers that I can find 

 in any seedsman's catalogue." 



"Oh, I see," said the A. R. as he hob- 

 bled away, "bachelor's buttons and them 

 things. Used to raise them when I was 

 a boy." 



No, not so much the bachelor's buttons 

 as "them things." 



The miscellaneous "things" not so well 

 and commonly known proved to be the 

 best part of the experimental bed. 



It was indeed interesting to observe 

 the unfolding "rosettes of confetti" as a 

 visitor not inaptly described the slowly 

 spreading, beautifully tinted, papery 

 petals. It was astonishing to see that 

 the petals of any flower could be so dry, 

 papery, glossy and iridescent. 



To go into details of ways and means, 

 let me explain that the plants were as 

 follows : I give scientific names because 

 some of them have no other kind, except 



ONE OF THE "PAPER FLOWERS 

 ENLARGED. 



