ROOTEB CUTTINGS. 67 



the best kinds, and those adapted to his soil and local conditions, 

 makes a continual demand for new varieties, and an exchange of 

 standard sorts. Cuttings should be carefully lifted from the sand, 

 flats, or turned out of pots, and massed in bunches of 25 each, 

 the roots wrapped in moist moss, truthfully labeled, packed in a 

 clean box corresponding in size to the number of plants to be 

 shipped. Line the box with felt paper, in both warm and cold 

 weather, tack the customary label for plants or cut flowers bear- 

 ing the traditionary legend of "Plants, keep from heat or cold," 

 and start them on their mission. 



Healthy plants are always implied. Send such, true to name, 

 or none. After long and multifarious dealings with the floral pro- 

 fession, I assert that there is no class of business men more honest 

 and honorable than florists, but it would be miraculous if an oc- 

 cassional mercenary degenerate was not found among them. Out 

 of 15 or 20 orders for new kinds of carnations sent from near home 

 this spring, one was received, consumed with rust. It is hard to 

 conceive of more contemptible moral obliquity. On the afiidavits of 

 two disinterested florists to the fact, and publication in trade 

 journals, the offender should be quarantined from business rela- 

 tions with fair dealing men, until his nature has been recomposed 

 by some reformatory machine, none of which has yet been pat- 

 ented. 



Scientists have ceased their search for life, and they confine 

 themselves to studying its normal and abnormal phenomena. In 

 all the practical phases of the carnation's life there is not one more 

 profoundly secret, and vaguely nebulous, than the life-related 

 causes of the /ra?^5•/>;^/' and /^^^/)/«^ qualities of its flowers. Their 

 duration ranges from a few hours to 30 days, when environed 

 with condition, not noticably different. 



Messrs. Dorner and Crabb think the substance of petals and 

 their duration are co-related; i\Ir. Witterstaetter adds proper hand- 

 ling as a panacea; Mr. Kasting says their keeping depends on the 

 time the flowers are picked after they are blown; Mr. Bauer says 

 a flower on a stem cut from the plant with a sharp knife will last 

 twice as long as one pinched or broken off; Mr. May says he 



