BREVITIES. 147 



In 1880 there was but one floral establishment in America; 

 in 1820, 4; 1830, 11; 1840, 36; 1850, 76; i860, 112. In 1900, 10,- 

 000 that rise to a high grade of commercial dignity, or fully 15,000 

 all considered. 



The production of infertile carnation flowers is but a phase 

 of plant foliation. The foliage is the type, the petals in the 

 corolla are the antitype of the foliage, as is the spathe of the anti- 

 type of that plant's leaf. 



It has been discovered that sulphur, and possibly other cheap 

 chemicals are often mixed with bales of tobacco stems to preserve 

 their fresh appearance; l)urning such stems is injurious to plants 

 and ruinous to flowers. 



The secretary of the Agricultural Department estimates that 

 there are $12,500,000 worth of flowers sold each year in the 

 United States, and one-third of this vast sum is realized from the 

 sale of more than 100,000,000 carnation blooms. 



There never has been a rust-proof carnation. Those specimens 

 that have been esteemed so, were merely plants, or batches, that 

 by accident escaped Thrips, Red Spider, Greenfly and other 

 puncturing pests to lesion their epidermis, with culture spot in 

 which the spores of rust could vegetate. 



The cause of carnations goi?i^ to sleep at early and unusual 

 hours has been a source of much perplexity. Carnation petals are 

 vascular and sensitively organized. Their mission is brief and to 

 dazzle by glare. They begin to wilt the instant fertilization is ef- 

 fected. Many gases are quickly poisonous to them; they soon per- 

 ish if cut before they mature; they shrivel in a dry atmosphere if 

 developed in a wet one; they die if taken from an ice refrigerator 

 into the warm sun. Grown in normal conditions, cut at the 

 proper time, and kept in congenial environments, carnation flow- 

 ers may be merchantable for nearly three weeks. 



