

iisSs^ 





>llllillllllllli:ll<i:i|llllllllllllllllli)i<lill'lll>f'^ 



CAN CREATE CALL s^ 

 ^ FOR CALCEOLARIA 



"Next to novelty, variety is most sought for hy the public in plants and 

 flowers. It is the part of policy, as well as the path to prosperity, to revive 

 old favorites rather than to kill off present ones hy making them too com- 

 mon. People often get "too much of a good thing," even in flowers. Here 

 is a good plant that is deserving of greater popularity. 



LANTS, like people, have 

 their ups and downs in pub- 

 lie estimation, their times 

 of popularity and their 

 times of obscurity. The 

 varieties of plants that are 

 now in great demand may 

 be friendless and forgotten in the near 

 future, and waiting in vain for a pur- 

 chaser. The plants that now are the 

 "ins" may soon be the "outs," and 

 florists who would always have salable 

 stock must be as watchful as politicians 

 in regard to the ever-changing opinions 

 of the public. 



Sometimes it is easy to explain why 

 a plant — or a person — has fallen into 

 disrepute. The plant — like many per- 

 sons — has been guilty of some sort of 

 misbehavior, or some new favorite has 

 rudely pushed it to one side and taken 

 its place in the limelight. In the case 

 of some other plants — the calceolaria, 

 for instance — the reason for their down- 

 fall is not so clearly apparent. 



Has Seen Better Days. 



For the calceolaria certainly is not so 

 popular as it once was, and probably 

 not so popular as it deserves to be, 

 since it is both showy and attractive 

 and seems to be well adapted for use 

 as a decorative plant 

 in the show house, the 

 conservatory or the 

 home. There may be 

 various reasons for its 

 dethronement; a com- 

 bination of circum- 

 stances may have 

 acted against it, but 

 one well-i n f o r m e d 

 grower says the chief 

 reason is that the cal- 

 ceolaria, though not 

 really difficult to grow, 

 is easily ruined by 

 Qeglect. That state- 

 ment may not mean 

 that the plant is espe- 

 cially sensitive and 

 peevish about the 

 treatment it receives, 

 but may mean simply 

 that there are certain 

 reasonable attentions 

 which it absolutely de- 

 mands, as any self-re- 

 specting plant would. 



But, though the flo- 

 rist, in trying to select 

 the best sellers, must 

 be largely controlled 

 by the public whims, 

 he may also do much 



to control those same whims, like the 

 woman who skillfully manages her hus- 

 band, or thinks she does, though out- 

 wardly pretending to obey his slightest 

 wish. It is frequently profitable for 

 the florist thus to exert an influence on 

 the market. Why, then, should he not 

 aid in creating a market for calceolarias, 

 if at the same time he would help, 

 rather than hinder, the sale of his other 

 plants t Why should he not grow a 

 batch of calceolarias from seed, or pur- 

 chase a few of the young plants for re- 

 tailing, since he would thus increase 

 the variety and attractiveness of his en- 

 tire stock and stimulate the market? 



Great Variety, But Few Varieties. 



In this matter of introducing greater 

 variety and relieving monotony the cal- 

 ceolaria is peculiarly serviceable, be- 

 cause it is odd and unique in appear- 

 ance and because a package or two of 

 the seeds, if obtained from a reliable 

 firm, will produce many different types 

 of beautiful, pocket-like flowers, richly 

 and variously colored, spotted and 

 blotched. Perhaps it would have been 

 proper to say "slipper-like" flowers, in- 

 stead of "pocket-like," since the name 

 of the plant is formed from the Latin 

 word ' ' calceolus, ' ' meaning a ' * slipper. ' ' 



As an Attractive and Showy Pot Plant the diceolarfa is Not Easily Surpassed. 



In this connection it may be inter- 

 esting to note that present-day cal- 

 ceolarias, though so diversified in ap- 

 pearance, are not easily divisible into 

 separate varieties or species, and mod- 

 ern growers make little or no attempt 

 at such division. In other words, cal- 

 ceolarias, as commonly grown, show 

 great variety but few distinct varieties. 

 They have been hybridized and hybrid- 

 ized, accidentally and intentionally, in 

 the greenhouse and in the garden, until 

 all clear trace of their ancestry has 

 been lost. They are an inextricably 

 mixed race. Perhaps you have known 

 of some dog which, though an excellent 

 and lovable animal, belonged to no par- 

 ticular breed, but was ' ' just dog. ' ' Like- 

 wise, many of the best calceolarias are 

 just calceolarias. 



A Place In tlie Family. 



Botanically speaking, however, there 

 are, or were, about 200 distinct species 

 of calceolarias, the progenitors of the 

 present commercial sorts. Hence the 

 botanist who tries to classify calceolaria 

 plants correctly, both scientifically and 

 practically, is sure to find himself in a 

 maze of difficulties. So, also, the person 

 who would undertake to state just 

 what kind of calceolaria is shown in 

 the accompanying illus- 

 tration, and would at- 

 tempt to give it an 

 exact name and place 

 in the calceolaria fam- 

 ily, would only be 

 courting trouble. Still, 

 if the plant in the 

 picture had a string of 

 high - sounding names 

 stretching four or five 

 inches in length, and 

 if its genealogy could 

 be traced directly to a 

 plant that was brought 

 over in the Mayflower, 

 it could scarcely bear 

 a denser mass of 

 blooms. 



The calceolaria fam- 

 ily comprises a shrub- 

 by section as well as a 

 herbaceous one, but 

 only the herbaceous 

 plants are cultivated 

 to any extent in 

 America. The shrubby 

 forms, though great 

 favorites in many 

 European gardens, do 

 not flourish outdoors in 

 the hot American sum- 

 mers and are less orna- 



