520 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



Properly, this question be- 

 THE ODOR OF THE l..ngs under the title, "They 

 FLOWERS. ^\'ish to Know," but it in- 



volves a profound principle 

 worthy of extended consideration, hence we shall devote 

 more space to it than is generally accorded questions. 

 During the last two score years we have read all sorts of 

 answers to this same question, and never yet have we met 

 with one that did not require more faith or credulity 

 (whatever word you choose, to represent the idea) to 

 accept than is to be gathered from the writings of Sacred 

 History. Invariably the answers were the products of 

 some man who, having acquired a fund of knowledge 

 from books, and occupying a professor's chair in some 

 institution of learning. In every instance the attempt was 

 made to reason it out scientifically, and the answer was 

 alwa}s as clear as mud. The odor of a flower? Think 

 of it, then think of the odor of flowers. A wonderful 

 thought on a very mysterious thing. Dear reader ! how 

 many varieties of odors of flowers can you call to mind? 

 That of the violet, the rose (both tea and rose), heli- 

 otrope, hyacinth, daphne, jassamine, jonquil, orange 

 blossoms. The list would be a long one if all were named, 

 yet all are different. No touch has ever yet been delicate 

 enough to feel it, no eye clear enough to see it, yet its 

 presence is always detected by the sense of smell con- 

 veying to the inmost soul of man one of the delights the 

 Creator intended that he should enjoy along the pathway 

 of life. We are obdurate enough to believe, and are 

 comforted in the thought that, "in the beginning God 

 created the heaven and the earth, and on the third, at 

 his command, the earth brought forth grass, and herb 

 yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit 

 whose seed was in itself after its kind." 



A\'e believe that he "who covereth himself with light as 

 with a garment ; who stretchest out the heaven like a 

 curtain ; who layeth the beams of his chambers in the 

 waters : who maketh the clouds his chariot : who walketh 

 upon the wings of the wind," made the rose in all its 

 beauty and gave to it its own delightful perfume. He 

 "who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, 

 and melted out heaven with a span, and comprehended 

 the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the 

 mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance," put the 

 perfume in the jassamine and gave to the daphne its odor 

 of surpassing sweetness. 



"He hath made the earth by his power, he hath estab- 

 lished the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out 

 the heavens by his understanding." He it is who hath 

 bestowed upon flowers innumerable their characteristic 

 fragrance, which no man can describe, to bring joy and 

 gladness to the hearts of the children of men. Xo 

 rationalistic theory of the origin of the odor of flowers 

 will satisfy the thoughtful mind, and, while the state- 

 ments herein made of the belief of this writer cannot be 

 proven, they cannot be successfully contradicted. 



Another thought in connection with this question is 

 the utility of the odor of flowers. Utilitarians are not 

 satisfied with anything, or anybody which or who are 

 not useful. It is our belief, in addition to the charm there 

 is in the beauty of a flower, the odor was bestowed upon 

 it by Creative Wisdom for the twofold purpose of lead- 

 ing the thoughts of men and women to God. the author 

 of Life and Love. — Pacific Gardens. 



WHY FLOWERS 

 WILT. 



Flowers wilt because of the 

 collapse of the individual 

 cells of which they are made 

 up. So long as these cells 

 are distended the flowers remain fresh. This distention 

 is due to osmotic pressure. If the osmotic equilibrium — ■ 

 that is, the osmotic pressure within and without the 

 cells — can be kept uniform, the flowers remain fresh. If 

 the osmotic equilibrium is disturbed, the flowers wilt. 

 Now, osmotic pressure depends upon the presence in the 

 cell of a liquid containing substances in solution. The 

 proportion and character of the substance dissolved deter- 

 mine the degree of osmotic pressure exerted by the liquid 

 within the cell. 



L. Fourton, associate professor of chemistry, and Mtal 

 Ducomet, professor of botan}-, at the National School 

 of Agriculture at Rennes, France, have made a series of 

 experiments during the last three years to determine the 

 influence of various solutions in prolonging the life of 

 cut flowers through their influence on osmotic pressure. 

 Over 100 varieties of plants were experimented with and 

 over 100 experiments were tried on each. It was found 

 that mixtures of mineral and organic substances were, as 

 a rule, not so effective ; no one substance was universally 

 helpful, though solutions of sugar were more generally 

 helpful than those of any other substance. The strength 

 of the solution to be used varied with the different plants. 

 Lilacs, lilies, sweet peas and a few other flo\\er5 were 

 hurt, not helped, by the addition of sugar to the water. 

 Sugar seemed to have no influence either one way or the 

 other on marguerites, chrysanthemums and tulips. 

 Nearly all the other popular flowers were benefited by the 

 addition of sugar to the water in which they were kept, 

 the life of the flower being lengthened from 10 to 300 

 per cent. The strength of the sugar solution to be used 

 varies with dift'erent flowers. \\'ith carnations a 15 per 

 cent, sugar solution is helpful : with most roses a solution 

 of from 7 to 10 per cent, in strength gives the best 

 results. Orchids did best in solutions varying from 10 

 to 20 per cent, of sugar. The sugar solutions accelerated 

 the opening of buds, particularly among roses and 

 orchids. 



Lilacs, though injured by sugar solution alone, were 

 helped by a 12 per cent, solution of sugar containing one 

 part of manganese sulphate in 10.000. Chloral, ether, 

 glvcerin and alcohol in varying proportions helped certain 

 of the blossoms, while others were helped by lime water, 

 potash and its salts, and ammonia and its salts. 



The only advantage of changing water seemed to be 

 the prevention of putrefaction ; otherwise changing the 

 water in which flowers stand seemed detrimental. The 

 more deeply the stem was immersed in the water or solu- 

 tion, the better the result : that is. the water shoifld come 

 as near as possible to the blossom. — Florist Review. 



The fact that manv butter- 

 SCENT OF INSECTS flies possess any scent at all 

 IS KEEN. lias, until recently, hardly 



been recognized, even by 

 scientists ; and yet the human sense of smell is probably 

 grossly dull as compared with that of the insects them- 

 selves. We know that the males of some species are at- 

 tracted to the females from almost incredible distances, 

 so that a moth will come from somewhere in the open 



