.■>v»"v'~ <;,'».. •. * 



Perha/ps the labor involved in floral arrangements now is so costly 

 that the embodiment of cipher messages in them would be weU-nigh pro- 

 hibitively expensive. But readers of The Review will learn with interest 

 the possibilities there are in this way to "Say It with Flowers." 



CCOEDING to Scripture, 

 "the thing which has 

 been is the thing that shall 

 be, and that which has 

 been done is that which 

 shall be done, and there is 

 no new thing under the 

 sun." Among the things 

 that have been done over 

 and over again in the his- 

 tory of man is "Saying It with Flow- 

 ers." Even God said it with flowers; for 

 He told Jeremiah to look at what was 

 before him. (Jeremiah 1, 11.) Jeremiah 

 replied that he saw nothing but a twig 

 of almond blossoms. Then the Lord 

 said linto him, "You have good eyes. 

 The almond twig tells you that I will 

 do what I say before you 

 realize what I mean." 

 ("I will hasten my word 

 to perform it, ' ' just as the 

 almond tree blossoms be- 

 fore its leaves have bud- 

 ded.) 



Thus down the ages 

 the plants and flowers, 

 "from the cedar that 

 flourished in the heights of 

 the mountains to the hys- 

 sop which sprang from the 

 crannies of the wall," 

 have spoken a universal 

 dialect to the sons and 

 daughters of men. The 

 modest violet, the thought- 

 ful pansy, the regretful 

 rue, the silly columbine, 

 the vain narcissus, the 

 tearful hyacinth have 

 talked their sweet lan- 

 guage to lovers; the roses 

 of England, the lilies of 

 France, the Scottish 

 thistle, the Irish shamrock 

 have spoken their last 

 comfort to heroes. 



Ancient Practice. 



But there is another 

 way of saying it with 

 flowers which may be of 

 interest to florists, a 

 method that is probably 

 unknown to most of them, 

 though it was evidently 

 in practice three centuries 

 ago. 



Most of us are inclined 

 to think that the science 

 of ciphers is something 

 new, that it has been in 

 existence for only a dec- 

 ade or two. The truth of 

 the matter is that a great 

 many methods of secret 

 communication were 



By OORA 7. J£NSEN, 

 Department of Ciphers, 

 Riyerbank Laboratories, Geneya, 



111. 



vogue centuries ago. Some of them 

 were used by the ancients so long ago 

 that their origins are ^ost in the haze 

 of antiquity. About three hundred 

 years ago the practice of cryptography 

 had reached a high degree of develop- 

 ment. No man of parts, no diplomat or 

 statesman regarded his education com- 

 plete without a knowledge of ciphers, 

 and many weighty volumes dealing with 

 cryptography were published and stud- 

 ied. One of the best known books of 

 this period, written by a cryptographer 

 named Friderici, bears the title, * * Cryp- 

 tography, or Secret Writing." 



-1 Q 



in Wreath and Cipher Key from Seventeenth Century Cryptographer. 



What have ciphers to do with floricul- 

 ture? In the seventeenth century there 

 were few matters of importance that 

 did not have something to do with 

 ciphers. In those days it was danger- 

 ous to think when one's ideas did not 

 happen to please the powers that were, 

 and vastly more dangerous to put un- 

 popular ideas in writing. So human 

 ingenuity was constantly on the alert 

 to devise ways of "getting by" with 

 important information or vital mes- 

 sages. And one of the ways they did it 

 was to "Say It with Flowers." 



It was effective, as simple methods 

 always are. The best kind of cipher 

 medium is one that excites no suspicion, 

 and what more innocent looking than 

 a wreath or bouquet f 

 Hence, Friderici gives di- 

 rections for representing 

 words by flowers. His il- 

 lustrative message is sen- 

 timental, but he suggests 

 that any kind of message 

 can be "said with flow- 

 ers. ' ' He shows us a nat- 

 ural, unsuspicious looking 

 wreath composed of 

 twelve kinds of flowers, 

 as illustrated on this page. 

 The key for decipherment 

 is given for this exam- 

 ple. A single rose repre- 

 sents the letter E, a pair 

 of roses, N; a single tu- 

 lip represents the letter I, 

 a pair of them, R, and so 

 on. The letters J and "V 

 were not present in the 

 alphabet then, being rep- 

 resented by I and U re- 

 spectively. 



Bouquet's Message. 



The design is to be read 

 in a clockwise direction, 

 beginning at exactly 12 

 o'clock. The end of a 

 word is indicated by a 

 spray of lilies of the val- 

 ley. The message reads: 

 "Ich bleibe dir getreu, 

 bis in den tod," which, 

 translated, is "I will re- 

 main true to you unto 

 death." 



The method of saying it 

 with flowers as set forth 

 by this old cryptographer 

 depends upon the fact 

 that the wreath or 

 "kranz" was the most 

 popular form of floral ar- 

 rangement in those days. 

 Customs have changed, 

 and the sending of a 



