OCTOBBB 28, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



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involved in the va- 

 rious combinations 

 of the letters of the 

 key, because the bi- 

 literal alphabet is 

 composed not mere- 

 ly of combinations 

 of two things, but 

 of permuted combi- 

 nations. For exam- 

 ple, l*oth the letter 

 B and the letter B 

 are composed o f 

 four a's and one b, 

 but the former re- 

 quires the b to 

 stand at the end of 

 the combination, 

 the latter requires 

 it to stand at the 

 beginniztg. For this 

 reason the groups of 

 five flowers would 

 have to exhibit a 

 regularity in the ar- 

 rangement f t h e 

 roses. It would be 

 necessary to ar- 

 range the members 

 of each group of five in sequences regu- 

 larly from left to right, or right to left, 

 or clockwise, or counterclockwise — any 

 order of "reading" the flowers agreed 

 upon by the parties concerned will do. 

 An example of a design incorporating 

 such a cipher is given at the bottom 

 of page 18. Here the flowers are to 

 be "read" in a more or less regular 

 order corresponding to the directions 

 which the pen would naturally take in 

 forming these letters. The key is the 

 same as the one given by Bacon, dhown 

 on page 18, and the message enciphered 

 in the design is, "Love accomplishes all 

 things." 



For example, the ornamental scroll at 

 the left shows a white rose, then a pink 

 rose, then a white one, a pink one, and 

 a white one. This corresponds to the 

 combination ababa, which stands for 

 L, the first letter of the enfolded mes- 

 sage. The other letters are read in the 

 same manner. 



Applying Cipher. 



The biliteral cipher lends itself in this 

 manner to a multitude of applications. 

 Of course, the key can be varied at the 

 will of the encipherer. It has been 

 noted that the key presents a mathe- 

 matical regularity of such a clear na- 

 ture that it can be lecoiistructed from 

 memory at any time. If it is desired to 

 change the key, this may be done by 

 leaving the rectangle of a's and b's in- 

 tact but simply changing the equiva- 

 lents for the various combinations. An 

 easy method of effecting a complete 

 change of key, with the possibility of 

 easily remembering or transmitting it, 

 would then be to use a key word, which 

 would give rise to what is termed in 

 cryptography a key word alphabet. This 

 consists of an arbitrarily mixed se- 

 quence of the letters of the alphabet 

 made by writing the key word and fol- 

 lowing it by the remaining unused let- 

 ters of the alphabet. By applying this 

 method, an infinite number of keys is 

 possible. Following is an example of 

 such an alphabet, based upon the key 

 word ' ' American ' ' : 



"5aYiTvj»th fwovief?5" 



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Florists* Slogan as It Might Be Said in Cipher fay Means of Flowers. 



o 

 p 



Q 



s 



T 



abbba 

 abbbb 

 baaaa 

 baaab 

 baaba 



U baabb 



W babaa 



X babab 



T babba 



Z babbb 



The triliteral cipher, based upon com- 

 binations of three things taken in 

 groups of threes, may be used in a man- 

 ner similar to that of the biliteral ci- 

 pher. Three things through three 

 places will yield twenty-seven different 

 combinations, so that we have at our 

 disposal more than a suf5.cient number 

 to represent all the letters of our alpha- 

 bet. A key of this type based upon the 

 key word "New York" would be as 

 follows: 



The triliteral alphabet also exhibits 

 a mathematical regularity of construc- 

 tion such that it may be reconstructed 

 from memory at any time. 



An interesting and practical appli- 

 cation of the incorporation of mes- 



Send b Photographs. 



Perhaps a knowledge of 

 how cipher messages can be 

 conveyed by f low^eis will lead 

 some florists to make designs 

 of the type described in this 

 timely article. Such prac- 

 tical application of the theo- 

 retical principles given above 

 would be of particular interest 

 to the trade in general. Flo- 

 rists who make such cipher 

 designs are invited to send 

 photographs of their work to 

 The Review, which will make 

 payment for those it is able 

 to use. 



sages within de- 

 signs could be made 

 in such cases as, 

 for example, in 

 flower beds, or large 

 designs in public or 

 private gardens. 

 Where the facilities 

 for such work are 

 available, the con- 

 struction, for exam- 

 ple, of a large 

 American flag con- 

 taining a cipher 

 message would be 

 perfectly f e a s ible 

 and would add con- 

 siderable interest to 

 the design. The 

 construction of the 

 characteristic e m- 

 blems of fraternal 

 orders also offers 

 interesting possibil- 

 ities. The florists' 

 slogan, "Say It 

 with Flowers, ' * is 

 contained in the de- 

 sign shown at the 

 _ _ The key is the same 

 as for the crescent with the message 

 ' ' Requiescat in pace, ' ' on page 18. Only 

 the arrangement is indicated, the differ- 

 ent colors not being indicated. 



For Ordinary Bouquet. 



Thus far we have dealt only with 

 methods wherein necessity for secrecy 

 and the avoidance of suspicion do not 

 have to be met. If, however, we desire 

 the communication to be secret and at 

 the same time be such as to arouse no 

 suspicion, we may avail ourselves of the 

 method Friderici gives for incorporat- 

 ing a message in an ordinary bouquet. 

 This is the simple method which he ad- 

 vises: 



Divide the alphabet into a number of 

 sections and label the members in each 

 section 1, 2, etc. Then let one type of 

 flower or stem apply to one section, and 

 another type to the second section, and 

 BO on. This will constitute the key. As 

 an example of such an alphabet he gives 

 the following key: 



top of this page. 



Suppose that you wish to send the 

 message, "Come. All is ready." The 

 first letter of the message, C, being rep- 

 resented by three stems of rosemary, a 

 thread is wound about these three 

 stems; then there are added two stems 

 of cornflower, which are bound by sev- 

 eral turns of the thread to the three 

 rosemary stems. Then six stems of sage 

 are added, followed by five of rosemary. 

 This being the end of the word 

 "come," the thread is knotted and cut 

 off. Then the first letter of the next 

 word is added, it being tied' to the bou- 

 quet by a fresh piece of thread, and so 

 on. In deciphering the bouquet, the let- 

 ters of the message are discovered in 

 the reverse order, thus: "Ydaer si Ila 

 emoc. " 



If one prefers to have the recipient 

 decipher the message with less diffi- 

 culty, the letters may be "enfolded" 

 in the bouquet in the reverse order, so 

 that in taking the bouquet apart the 

 straight text of the message appears at 

 once. 



