14 



The Florists' Review 



Sbftbubse 21, IMS. 



facturing centers. The axillary buds 

 and storage cells may be termed points 

 of distribution. 



When the Sun Is on Duty. 



Through the process of transpiration, 

 water and salts in solution are con- 

 veyed from the roots upward through 

 trunk and branches to the leaves, 

 where, under the influence of the sun, 

 they are joined with other materials to 

 form organized compounds. These or- 

 ganized compounds are then transported 

 to the various points of expansion and 

 are utilized in building up new parts of 

 the plant. Just as long as continuous 

 movement from root to leaf and from 

 leaf to points of consumption is kept 

 up unimpeded, a healthy condition may 

 be maintained, but should the raw ma- 

 terial be transported to the leaves 

 faster than the leaves are able to take 

 care of it, harmony of operation is dis- 

 rupted and a cause is engendered that 

 may have for its effect mildew and black 

 spot. 



When the Sun Disappears. 



The sun occupies the pivotal position 

 in the case, as it is the fountainhead of 

 all plant energy. When its presence is 

 obscured by the clouds, manufacturing 

 of organized compounds in the leaves 

 ceases and resumption of activity does 

 not take place until it reappears. Hence 

 it may be readily conceived that during 

 prolonged periods of cloudy weather a 

 congestion of raw material would take 

 place in the leaves. This condition, if 

 applications of water are continued in- 

 judiciously, results in weakened cell 

 walls and brings about a state of low 

 vitality that prevents the plant from 

 waging a successful battle against 

 fungous spores. 



Eight here we have an example of 

 the working of the law of cause and 

 effect. The lack of sunlight causes a 

 cessation of manufacturing activity in 

 the leaves and the congestion of raw 

 material beyond the capacity of the 

 cells to care for it, with the result that 

 the walls of the cells weaken and gen- 

 eral debility ensues. 



Invitations to Disease. 



Constitutional weakness and general 

 debilitation, whether in man or plant, 

 unless effectively remedied, presage dis- 

 ease. These unnatural conditions are 

 brought about by continued violations 

 of natural laws. Excesses in physical 

 indulgence are the primary causes. If 

 a man eats heartily and engages in 

 strenuous employment, taking care that 

 his lungs are afforded an ample supply 

 of life-preserving oxygen, his system 

 can easily take care of the large amount 

 of food with which he loads his stom- 

 ach. Digestion, assimilation and excre- 

 tion are properly functioned and no ill 

 effects follow. But let a man who leads 

 a sedentary life follow the same dietary 



Erocedure, and witness the result, 

 •igestion is faulty, assimilation is 

 sparse and excretion is insufficient to 

 care for the accumulated mass of waste 

 material. The result is that the system 

 clogs up; a general breaking down of 

 the natural power of disease-resistance 

 takes place, and the first vagrant germ 

 or microbe that comes along selects him 

 with joy as a desirable place in which 

 to establish a stock farm. 



Watching the Weather. 



The same conditions apply to plants. 

 Dnring bright, sunshiny weather, abun- 



dant waterings may be given and no ill 

 effects will result, as the plant in its 

 entirety is, under the beneficial influ- 

 ence of the sun 's rays, functioning prop- 

 erly and is able to digest and assimilate 

 all nutritious materials absorbed and to 

 evaporate most of the useless matter. 

 But treat the plants the same way dur- 

 ing spells of damp, cloudy weather, and 

 the result will be the same as in the 

 case of the man who eats to excess with- 

 out engaging in sufficient work or exer- 

 cise to provide a natural demand for 

 the excessive supply of nutriment. A 

 clogged or congested condition will arise 

 in the system, giving birth to a general 

 weakness which renders the plant an 

 easy prey for any spores of mildew or 

 black spot which may be leisurely float- 

 ing through the atmosphere. 



The Busy Little Germs. 



Mildew and black spot are constitu- 

 ents of aerial life. As diversified and 

 as multitudinous as land and water or- 

 ganisms are the inhabitants of the at- 

 mosphere. They belong to the lowest 

 order of animal and vegetable life, and, 

 unlike their more refined brethren, they 



|B|VERY now and then a well- 

 lL9 pleased reader speaks the word 

 which is the means of brtnsfing a 

 new advertiser to 



Such friendly assistance is thorougiily 

 appreciated. 



Give us the name of anyone from 

 whom you are buying, not an adver- 

 tiser. "We especially wish to interest 

 those selling articles of florist's use 

 not at present advertised. 



FLORISTS* PUBLISHING CO. 

 ^20-60 Caxton Bldg. Chicago 



are imbued with a parasitic nature. 

 Each type preys on its generic relatives 

 in the higher scale of organic evolution 

 and a continual warfare is waged. To 

 all appearances, these atmospheric con- 

 stituents form a large part of nature's 

 judiciary system, as they are constantly 

 alert to discern the violators of her laws 

 and to inflict punishment on them by 

 taking possession of the body and de- 

 stroying health. All of the higher sub- 

 jects of nature are under suspicion, and 

 investigations are unceasingly conduct- 

 ed by these germs, microbes and spores. 

 The only evidence of guiltlessness is the 

 ability of the objects of suspicion to 

 withstand the investigation and to cast 

 the investigator back into the media 

 from which it came. That is nature's 

 reward for observance of her laws — im- 

 munity from the sinister effects of her 

 dispensers of punishment. 



Two Dangerous Periods. 



In commercial rose culture under 

 glass the two periods of greatest danger 

 to the plants, as far as mildew and 

 black spot are concerned, are early au- 

 tumn and spring. Weather conditions 



characteristic of these two periods are 

 such that control of atmospherie envi- 

 ronmei^ is at times impossible. Bun- 

 shine and rain follow each other for 

 days — yes, and for weeks — with a fre- 

 quency and evenness of duration that 

 tax the good nature of the most opti- 

 mistic rosarian. Nights warm and 

 damp follow the erratic days and the 

 use of steam in the pipes under the beds 

 is almost precluded. 



The manufacturing of organized com- 

 pound in the leaves from the raw mate- 

 rial conveyed thereto by ascending sap 

 is reduced to a minimum; or, to be more 

 explicit, only takes place during the 

 periods of actual sunlight. Transpira- 

 tion also is retarded, to a great extent, 

 as the air surrounding the leaves is sur- 

 charged with moisture and consequently 

 is unable to accommodate that addi- 

 tional supply which, under favorable 

 growing conditions, would be passed off 

 from the plant in the form of vapor dur- 

 ing the functioning of transpiration. 



The Prime Essential, 



Control of soil moisture during pe- 

 riods of dark, damp weather, when the 

 outside temperature is too warm to per- 

 mit the use of artificial heat in the 

 houses, may be conceded as the prime 

 essential in the maintenance of an en- 

 vironmental condition conducive to 

 plant health and inhibitory to occupa- 

 tion by fungous spores. During such 

 periods water, if applied at all to the 

 soil in which the roots reside, should 

 be given only when absolutely neces- 

 sary. 



To culturists who "operate under the 

 numerical system of water application 

 — that is, watering so many times in a 

 given period regardless of external con- 

 ditions — the foregoing theories may 

 seem effete, but experience has proved 

 their merit. Methods contrary to them 

 may often be followed with good rather 

 than ill results. But beware! The 

 plants are endowed with great powers 

 of adaptation. They can labor along in 

 good health for a time under the most 

 adverse conditions, but ultimately na- 

 ture will exact her toll. The laws of 

 cause and effect are immutable. Men 

 or plants may violate one natural law 

 after another and apparently do so with 

 impunity, but the time arrives sooner 

 or later when they will be called upon 

 to pay the penalty — weakness and dis- 

 ease. 



Bocbelle, lU. — The retail business 

 conducted by Misses Weaver and Smith 

 has been discontinued. The stDck and 

 fixtures of the store were purchased by 

 Augustus Gaspers, the town's florist, 

 nurseryman and seedsman. 



> Wllkes-Barre, Pa. — The business of 

 Ira Q. Marvin, which after many years 

 of successful operation went through 

 bankruptcy proceedings last year, will 

 be continued by the family under the 

 same name, at 23 South Franklin street. 



Beacon, N. Y. — The local newspaper 

 prints a column entitled "Five Thou- 

 sand Miles Over Land and Sea," being 

 Benjamin Hammond's account of his 

 trip to the Houston convention of the 

 S. A. F. Incidentally Mr. Hammond 

 remarks: "One thing noticeable in 

 this southwestern land is the large 

 number of big men and women, black- 

 haired, fuU-visaged and active, and 

 few of the women don the uncomely 

 garments called 'fashions' ia New 

 York." 



