18 



The Florists' Review 



OCTOBIB 28, 1820 



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RE.QU\E6QAT »N PKCt 



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CAKHA-riOM 



AaTtR 



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a group; the letter 

 T, the next most 

 frequent one, by 

 five of them in a 

 group, and so on. 

 An example of a 

 floral crescent em- 

 ploying but three 

 kinds of flowers, 

 each showing two 

 colors, is given in 

 the illustration at 

 the top of this 

 pa^o. The key is 

 as follows, only 

 the arrangement, 

 and not the colors, 

 being indicated 

 by the diagram: 



& 



1^ 



% 



#,. 



Floral Crescent Conveying Cipher Message. 



wreath upon an occasion other than 

 what we should regard today as proper 

 would arouse suspicion. But the pos- 

 sibility of actually incorporating a mes- 

 sage in flowers wUl appeal to many per- 

 sons who have no desire or intention to 

 send surreptitious messages or secret 

 communications. For them, any kind of 

 decorative design or floral arrangement 

 can be used — the wreath, horseshoe, 

 heart, crescent, shield, etc. Many va- 

 riations and modifications of Friderici's 

 system are possible and will suggest 

 themselves to the enterprising florist for 

 use in connection with all kinds of de- 

 signs. In order to make the thing more 

 practicable, fewer than twelve diflPer- 

 ent kinds of flowers should be employed, 

 for it would be rather a difScult matter 

 to have so many kinds available si- 

 multaneously throughout the year. 



Constnicting Key. 



If we adopt a key consisting of com- 

 binations of flowers in sets of one, two 

 and three units, then only eight differ- 

 ent types of flowers would be necessary 

 to make all the requisite combinations 

 for the letters of the alphabet. Thus, a 

 single rose might represent the letter 

 E; two of them, N; three of them, I, and 

 BO on. If only four different kinds of 

 flowers are available, then they would 

 have to be used in combinations of one 

 to six units. A knowledge of the fre- 

 quency of occurrence of the letters in 

 the English language will be useful in 

 constructing the key. 



The letters of the English alphabet 

 arranged in order of frequency of oc- 

 currence, as determined in 1918 by the 

 Department of Ciphers of the Riverbank 

 Laboratories, are as follows: E, T, A, 

 0, N, I, S, H, R, D, L, C, U, F, M, P, 

 W, G, Y, B, V, K, X, Q, J, Z. If a de- 

 sign would be more artistic with many 

 flowers in groups, then the most fre- 

 quently used letters should be represent- 

 ed by combinations requiring several 

 flowers in a group. Thus, if only four 

 different kinds of flowers are available, 

 and one of the types is a small flower, 

 then the letter E, the most frequently 

 used letter in the English alphabet, 

 might be represented by six of them in 



No. fl. White Pink White Pink 

 in grp. Cam. Carn. Asters Asters 



1 R U W K 



2 D F G X 

 8 L M Y Q 

 4 C P B Z 



The deciphered message 

 reads : ' * Requiescat in pace. * ' 



The system presented above permits of 

 a great many modifications of arrange- 

 ment and key. Another cipher system 

 which would be equally effective and 

 would permit the construction of very 

 symmetrical designs is tlie biliteral 

 cipher invented by the great English 

 philosopher and statesman, Francis 

 Bacon, and explained in detail by him 

 in his famous work, "De Augmentis 

 Scientiarum, " published in 1623. 



Bacon employs for the key what he 

 terms a biliteral alphabet, composed of 

 combinations of two things taken in 

 groups of fives. Here it is: 



12340 

 A — aaaaa 



B — aaaab ^'' 



— aaaba ^' 



D — aaabb 



B — aabaa /' o*c 



P — aabab / ^ o c 



a — aabba / • o 



H— aabbb ' c 



I-J— abaaa / • • 



K — abaab . O 



L — ababa ' O. 



M— ababb / • 



N — abbaa » 



O— abbab ,' 



P— abbba ' 



Q— abbbb < 



R — baaaa 

 8 — baaab 

 T — baaba 

 U-V— baabb 

 W — babaa 

 X — babab 



Y— babba i ooo o ^ 



Z— babbb ; "°^ O O 



Attention may 

 be directed to the 

 mathematical reg- 

 ularity and the 

 symmetry of this 

 alphabet, by 

 means of which it 

 may be repro- 

 duced from mem- 

 ory at any time 

 and with no diffi- 

 culty. Note that 

 in the last column 

 the a's and b's al- 

 ternate singly to 

 the total of twen- 

 ty-four times. In 

 column four they 

 alternate in pairs, 



two a 's being followed by two b 's, then 

 two a's, etc. In column three they al- 

 ternate in sets of four, there being 

 four a's, then four b's, then four a's 

 again, etc. In column two they alter- 

 nate in sets of eight letters, and in 

 column one, in sets of sixteen letters. 

 If all thirty-two possible combinations 

 were used, there would be sixteen b's 

 in column one, as well as sixteen a's, 

 but since only twenty-four letters are 

 necessary (I and J, U and V being in- 

 terchangeable), only the first sixteen 

 combinations beginning with b are re- 

 quired. 



Stiltable Symbols. 



The letters a and b are merely sym- 

 bols, for any two things whatever are 

 possible, provided only that they are 

 susceptible of being distinguished by 

 any one of the s«nses. We might just as 

 correctly represent these combinations 

 by means of -f- 's and — *s, x's and y 's, 

 1 's and 2 's, dots and dashes, etc. Thus, 

 for example, we may use two different 

 sounds produced by a pair of bells, or 

 horns having different frequencies of 

 vibration, or we may use any two dif- 

 ferences recognizable by sight or touch. 

 The differences appealing to the eye 

 may involve any of the external char- 

 acteristics of the many common objects 

 available^i^tr use, such as their color, 

 shape, size, fttc. One kind would be 

 agreed upon as representing an a form, 

 the contrasting kind, as the b form. 



Forming Flower Key. 



With flowers we may easily employ 

 differences in color to represent the va- 

 rious combinations of a's and b's. For 

 example, suppose we use only red roses 

 and white roses. Five red roses may 

 stand for the letter A, which is repre- 

 sented by the combination aaaaa; four 

 red ones followed by one white one, the 

 letter b, which is represented by the 

 combination aaaab, and so on. In this 

 cipher, the order of the a's and b's is 



o 



Jlf AvSd I 





• Oo • • 



o 







• 

 o 





LOVE ACCOMPI-I5HE6 AuUTH»N&5 



ro« O SoeSTlTUTt wmTI RoStS 



fo* 



soosTiTuTt PINK «oses 



In Biliteral Cipher This Horseshoe Says More than It Seems. 



