12 



The Florists^ Review 



Decbmber 23, 1920 



way, is Aristolochia gigas, or Aristo- 

 lochia grandiflora Sturtevantii. One of 

 my sisters is Aristolochia Sipho, the 

 Dutchman's pipe; perhaps you have 

 seen her. Others of my sisters are: 

 A. cymbifera, the boat-shaped one; A. 

 ornithocephala, bird's head; A. tricau- 

 data, three-tailed, and A. ridicula — you 

 know what that means. Miss A. ridicula 

 has two long lobes which are said to 

 resemble a donkey's cars. Yes, we're 

 a queer lot and I'm the queerest of 

 all. 



Just an Overgrown Calyx. 



"As a flower," tJie goose went on, 

 "I am badly defective as well as freak 

 ish. I have no corolla, though the 

 corolla, or system of petals, would usu- 

 ally be considered the one absolutely 

 essential part of a flower — almost the 

 whole flower. In common, popular 

 opinion, the corolla is the flower. But 

 I am just an overgrown calyx, a long, 

 huge, grotesquely twisted calyx, ending 

 in a yard-long tail, by means of which 

 I am now clinging to my support, as a 

 monkey might suspend itself by its 

 tail from the branch of a tree. How- 

 ever, nature did not intend my tail for 

 such a purpose; this use of it is the in- 

 vention of the window decorator who 

 placed me here. 



"But allow me, ladies and gentle- 

 men," the goose flower pleaded, "to 

 draw your attention to those other 

 flowers. Look, for instance, at that 

 pink rose. Note its exquisite fineness 

 of texture, its grace of form, its rich- 

 ness and delicacy of color. Is there 

 anything else, aside from flowers, that 

 is so nearly a perfect embodiment of 

 beauty? And its fragrance — 



"My fragrance! My fragrance, did 

 you say? Did you really mean to in- 

 sult me? My fragrance, you know — 

 or perhaps you don 't know — is called, 

 at the best, an odor. That's what polite 

 people call it, but other people give it 

 a much worse name. 



The Ctoose Flower Wins. 



"Say, you good-looking, well-dressed 

 man, are you going away without buy- 

 ing any flowers? Do you mean to ad- 

 mit that you were attracted, fascinated, 

 almost captivated, by a misshapen od- 

 dity like me, but have no interest in 

 those other flowers, those most exquisite 

 specimens of nature's handiwork? Ah! 

 You have changed your mind and are 

 coming into the store. I thought you 

 looked like the right sort. And there 

 are two or three other people following 

 your example." 



Thus the goose flower sold other 

 flowers all day, and several successive 

 days, before being replaced by another 

 window display. 



If any florist wishes to grow a few 

 vines of the goose flower, he should plant 

 them in a bed of good, rich loam, in a 

 warm house where they can be con- 

 veniently trained up pillars, rafters or 

 a trellis. As a rule, they do not bloom 

 until they have grown to a consider- 

 able height. They are easily propagated 

 by means of cuttings taken from well 

 matured wood in early spring. 



at Washington in 1905 and having served 

 as treasurer from 1910 until his demise. 

 Through his wholesale business at Buf- 

 falo and other trade connections in that 

 section he became still better known 

 locally and was universally respected 

 and liked. So his trade friends were 

 shocked at his death at the early age of 

 46, when he succumbed as a result of 

 heart failure while attending the Demo- 

 cratic national convention at St. Louis 

 in 1916. So high was their regard for 

 him that they wished to erect a suitable 

 memorial, which took the form of the 

 stone shown in the illustration on this 

 page. The inscription reads, "William 

 V. Kasting, 1870-1916," and below, 

 "Laura A., His Wife, 1879-1912." On 

 the bronze tablet affixed below is the 

 following testimonial: "Erected by 

 the Florists of America as a mark of our 

 love and esteem and that his noble char- 

 acter may be held in perpetual honor. ' ' 



KASTINO'S MONUMENT. 



By most members of the trade the 

 name of William F. Kasting is not only 

 well remembered, but remembered with 

 esteem and affection. As an officer of 

 the Society of American Florists ho had, 

 at the time of his death, in 1916, served 

 more years than any other person up to 

 that time, having been elected president 



BELGIAN GLASS MABEET. 



Conditions of the glass market in Bel- 

 gium, which occasionally contributed to 

 American greenhouse construction be- 



Florists' Monument to Wm. F. Kasting. 



fore the war, are described a* follows by 

 Consul General Henry H. Morgan, at 

 Brussels: 



"In 1913 Belgium exported 40,559,441 

 kilos of plate glass valued at 30,465,967 

 francs, and 205,561,684 kilos of ordinary 

 window glass valued at 47,279,187 francs. 

 Exports of manufactured glass products 

 in 1919 amounted to 123,842,117 francs. 

 In December, 1919, resumption had 

 reached eighty-one per cent of pre-war 

 activity, with fifty-nine glass-making 

 establishments employing 22,785 men as 

 compared with 28,149 before the war. 



"The cost of manufacture has greatly 

 increased, being now about six times 

 what it was in 1914. Prices of raw mate- 

 rials have tripled and then quadrupled, 

 while the price of labor has gone up 

 150 per cent or more. Lack of coal hin- 

 dered output for a time, but there is 

 now prospect of being able to light more 

 furnaces. 



"The demand for plate and window 

 glass has been extraordinary. While 

 orders have been received from all over 

 the world, France has taken a consider- 



able portion of the window glass for us' 

 in the devastated regions, and th< 

 United States has bought a large amoun 

 of plate glass and sought more. Th< 

 market for plate glass remains good 

 but that for window glass has been af 

 fected recently by the price-cutting' 

 wave and notably by competition from 

 glass factories in Japan." 



EXPBESS COMPANIES CAN JOIN. 



The interstate commerce commission 

 December 20 in Washington granted an 

 thority for permanent consolidation of 

 the transportation business and proper- 

 ties of the Adams, American, Wells- 

 Fargo and Southern Express companies 

 into the American Eailway Express Co. 

 The commission said it was its belief 

 that the public would best be served by 

 one consolidated company, serving all 

 lines, with equal rates. 



The permit was based on an applica- 

 tion filed by the four express companies 

 last March. 



The commission divided on the ques- 

 tion. Commissioners McChord and Meyer 

 presenting a minority report. The con- 

 solidation, this dissenting report as- 

 serted, "creates a monopoly" and "de- 

 stroys every semblance of competition." 



COAL MABKET i&AKS. 



Price of Steam Ooal:Balved. 



The bottom dropped oh^oi the whole- 

 sale market for steam coftl i^ the cen- 

 tral west December 21,^^^nging about 

 the most radical reducti^ recorded in 

 years. In many ingtaniees the reduc- 

 tions cut the price iahalf. 



The mild weather was given as the 

 principal reason at a meeting of the 

 Hlinois Coal Operators' Association in 

 Chicago December 21. Other leading 

 operators said that the reduction was 

 caused by the shutting down of fac- 

 tories all over the country. 



Bange of Prices. 



The poorest grade of steam coal has 

 dropped from around $2 to 83 cents a 

 ton within the last few days. - Better 

 grades which have been selling for 

 from $7 to $8 a ton are now begging 

 for purchasers at from $3.50 to $4. Coal 

 which sold for from $8 to $10 a few 

 months ago can be had now for $3 a ton. 



' ' There is a greater supply than a de- 

 mand," said George W. Eeed, vice- 

 president of the Peabody Coal Co. "In- 

 dustries have shut down all over the 

 country. They have no further use for 

 fuel. Conditions are beginning to read- 

 just themselves. I would say that the 

 drop in the price of coal is simply an 

 indication of business getting down to 

 normal competitive prices. 



For Direct Purchases. 



"The high reconsigning and demur- 

 rage charges have also helped to bring 

 about a surplus supply. We wouldn't 

 think of sending out a carload of coal 

 unless it is purchased direct. Then 

 there are those who have purchased the 

 entire output of mines for the year. 

 The longer they hold the more they lose 

 and the slimmer are their chances for 

 disposing of their goods at any price." 



Several operators declared that the 

 coal was being piled up at the mines, 

 where full production is in progress 

 without a sign of purchasers. 



