874 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



(H.-TOHEK 22. 1003. 



in New Guinea — a fat lot he knn\ about 

 it. As for them Polynesian shirts, thi | 

 was made o' bark, soft as a kid glove — 

 you just slips off a section o' the right 

 "size, like a boy shucking a willow twig to 

 make a whistle, lace it up with a bit o' 

 railia, and you 've got a full dress cos- 

 loom. There was one chap I know in 

 the Solomon Islands — a beachcomber 

 from Massachusetts with one eye, named 

 Hopkins, as wouldn't wear one o' them 

 shirts till he'd sewed sleeves in it, but 

 the chief that bossed those diggin's had 

 Hopkins slugged one night — said he 

 wasn't goin' to have no one corruptin' 

 his people with the vices o ' civilization. ' ' 



" I thought what you was startin' out 

 to till us was about the grateful cuttle- 

 fish as saved your life," observed the 

 fireman, with an uninterested yawn. 



Jaggs whistled softly for a few min- 

 utes, until the parrot was discovered in 

 the act of dropping bits of broken flower 

 pots upon him, from the rafters above, 

 apparently with the idea of preventing an 

 encore. 



"Not as you're any judge o' music, 

 you bilious old pirate," remarked Jaggs, 

 glaring at the parrot, while he tried to 

 remove a bit of flower pot that had 

 slipped inside his collar. "I believe as 

 even a cuttlefish would be gratefuller 

 than a parrot, though that one wasn't. 

 It ain 't nothink much to talk about, any- 

 way. You know there's heaps o' water 

 snakes in the East Indies; the gaudiest 

 mess o' snakes you ever see — purple, red 

 and yellow, with tufts on their heads like 

 cockatoos. Talk about bein' poisonous — 

 why, a rattlesnake is just Mrs. Winslow 's 

 soothin' syrup compared with 'em. 

 'Tain't just in the rivers as you find 

 'em ; they 're sea-goin ' reptiles, and there 

 ain't no fun in runnin' into a school o' 

 them venomous beasts, when you're out 

 on a quiet fishin' trip. Well, I was out 

 with a bunch o ' Malays, as was gettin ' 

 sea cucumbers— what they calls trepang, 

 as they dries for them messy Chinamen. 

 It was a hot day, and I may have been 

 dosin ' a bit, when one o ' the Malays give 

 a yell, and there we was runnin' right 

 into an acre o' them circus-poster ser- 

 pents. At the same moment, the boat 

 (it was one o' them outrigger catama- 

 rans) begins to rock tremendous, and I 

 see more snakes, as I think, eomin' 

 aboard. I see right away, though, as 

 they wasn't snakes — we'd stirred up a 

 bloomin' big cuttlefish, with arms all of 

 20 feet long, and there we was, with that 

 there J. P. Morgan octopus on one side, 

 and a big mess o' poisonous snakes on 

 the other, and nothink to fight with but 

 the paddles! 



"I reckon, as I wasn't takin' no 

 chances with poisonous snakes, anyway, 

 and 1 made a clip at one pea-green ser- 

 pent as was makin' straight for me. 1 

 wasn't quite quick enough, and I feel 

 its fangs go into my arm, just as the 

 cuttlefish gets one o' them slimy arms 

 twisted right around me. Say, maybe 

 you think I wasn't in a tight place! Sea 

 just a-boilin ' with poisonous serpents on 

 one hand, cuttlefish the size of a haystack 

 on t'other, doin' his little best to snake 

 me out into the briny, the old catamaran 

 doin' a regular loop-the-loop, and me 

 knowin ' as inside o ' ten minutes I 'd be 

 deader 'n Pharaoh and covered with 

 bright purple spots from that there snake 

 bite! It was a bit different from that 

 time as I rode seven miles through the 

 Himalayas on the back of a snow leop- 

 :ird, that confidin' beast thinkin' as he 

 was goin' to have me for tea, but it 



wasn't no pie, I can tell you. Seems 

 i r I was a bit dazed — sort o ' dotty for 

 a few minutes — then I comes to myself, 

 lyin' in the bottom o' the boat. The 

 Malays was throwin' dead snakes over- 

 board — more'n a bushel of 'em, and 

 there was the devilfish, rockin' on top o' 

 the waves, swollen the size o' two hay- 

 stacks and covered with big purple 

 blotches! " 



Jaggs yawned ostentatiously, and 

 strolled over to read the thermometer, 

 remarking casually that it was about time 

 to turn in. 



"But what happened to the cuttle- 

 fish?" demanded an insistent chorus. 



' ' Why, that really was what you might 

 call a sing'lar thing," responded Jag?s. 

 "You see, that there cuttlefish got 'old 

 o ' me — not as- he 'ad any special use for 

 me, but just through general cussedness. 

 Once get them there tentacles touchin' 

 anythink and they 'old on. When that 



NOTE 



The Editor is pleased 

 when a Reader 

 presents his ideas 

 on any subject treated 

 in the REVIEW. As 

 experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we 

 learn fastest by an 

 exchange of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are brought out 

 by discussion. 



od penmanship, spelling and graui- 



poor misguided old lobster got fastened 

 on to my arm, o ' course he drew all the 

 poison out o' the snake bite, and reg'larly 

 committed suicide! 



" ' course, ' ' continued Jaggs, as he 

 moved to the door, "I ain't recommend- 

 in' cuttlefish as an antidote to rattle- 

 snakes, but it just shows as there's a use 

 for everythink — even sea serpents." 



With that Jaggs commandeered the 

 last pipeful of tobacco left in the jar, 

 and sauntered off to enjoy a solitary 

 pipe among the night moths that haunted 

 the gladiolus borders. 



SPANISH IRIS AND GLADIOLUS. 



What is the best way to force Span- 

 ish iris and The Bride gladiolus so as to 

 get them in bloom for Easter? The 

 Holland catalogues claim that they can 

 be forced quite easily. Let me know if 

 it can be done successfully. 



Cornwall. 



Forcing Spanish iris is something new 

 with many of us, but I am trying a few 

 thousand. We must be guided some- 

 what by the way they grow and flower 

 out of doors. They are perfectly hardy 

 and when planted in beds out of doors 

 for spring flowering they don 't flower 

 with us till the middle of June, which 

 proves they could be forced as we do 

 early tulips. 



Easter is as early as you can expect to 

 get them. As soon as received in the fall 

 plant in flats of 3 or 4 inches of soil 

 and treat as you would your tulips or 

 narcissus, covering with a few inches of 

 earth and later a little litter or leaves 

 to keep out hard freezing. They should 

 not have higher than a carnation house 

 temperature when brought in to force 

 and allow eight weeks from time of 

 bringing into heat till flowering. Keep 

 constantly moist; never let them be dry 

 or they will come blind. I won 't be pos- 

 itive, yet I believe it would be quite 

 difficult to get them in flower before 

 early April. 



Gladiolus Colvillei, The Bride is quite 

 different thing. They want no outside 

 treatment, as we do with all the so-called 

 Dutch bulbs, but can be put into soil on 

 the benches where they are expected to 

 flower. Like freesia, they can be grown 

 among carnations or on edges of beds. 

 Yet this is not the way to grow either 

 freesia or gladiolus well and they will 

 repay for a bench of 4 inches of soil in 

 a perfectly light position. There are few 

 more delicately beautiful flowers than 

 this miniature gladiolus, and yet it's 

 not by any means common. 



Plant the gladiolus in small lots every 

 two weeks so that you will have a suc- 

 cession. About 55 degrees at night will 

 suit it, but after you see the spike 

 formed it would bear more heat if con- 

 venient. William Scott. 



TWO GERMAN NOVELTIES. 



Fred. Boemer, of Quedlinburg, Ger- 

 many, is showing Begonia semperflorens 

 Golden King. It is described as a varie- 

 gated sport of the darkest Begonia sem- 

 perflorens Zulu King, that was intro- 

 duced in the autumn of 1S97. The 

 plants of this novelty, as grown under 

 glass, are of a stout and regular bushy 

 habit, and branch freely. The leaves 

 are very small, round, upright, and 

 bright sulphur-yellow colored, marked 

 sometimes with spots or blotches of an 

 orange color. The veins of the leaves 

 are sometimes of the same yellow color, 

 but at other times of a lively green. The 

 flowers are rich crimson, and the seed- 

 pods crimson-red. When this begonia is 

 planted out the yellow color becomes 

 bright caimine or carmine-rose on the 

 margin of the leaves. Mr. Boemer 

 states: "All the other yellow-leaved 

 varieties of B. semperflorens, such as B. 

 semperflorens atropurpurea foliis aureis, 

 and also of Begonia semperflorens Gold- 

 en Ball, are less attractive than Golden 

 King. ' ' 



Mr. Boemer also has a variegated 

 helianthus, of which he states: "Most 

 of the plants of Harpalium rigidum 

 foliis aureis, or Helianthus rigidus foliis 

 aureis, are about five feet in height. 

 They are vigorous in habit and branah 

 freely. The rough leaves are bright sul- 

 phur-yellow colored, sometimes variegated 

 with green. The flowers are of good size 

 and of a darker color than the leaves. 

 I dare say there are few perennials that 

 have such bright foliage, and I am sure 

 it will be found valuable for planting in 

 groups or in beds; but single plants will 

 also be very effective. The plants are 

 perfectly hardy and have withstood sev- 

 eral winters with me in the open ground 

 without any protection or covering. Last 

 year about fifty per cent of the seedlings 

 came true from seed." 



