1400 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Apkil 5, 1906. 



History of Easter. 



We are within a few days of Flora 's 

 greatest festival. Easter has no sucli 

 authentic evidence of antiquity as 

 Christmas; that it existed as a festival 

 among heathen nations or tribes, nor 

 can you summon sucli an array of folk 

 lore to embellish it. Yet there is good 

 evidence that it was an important event 

 ages before the sacred events occurred 

 with which Christianity connects it. 



Easter is not mentioned in the New 

 Testament by any of the apostolic 

 writers and the determination of the 

 date on which it should be observed 

 caused great ruptures in the early 

 church. The Jewish Christians adhered 

 to one date, the Latin and gentile Chris- 

 tians to another. Not till 325 A, D., 

 when the so-called Constantine the 

 Great called the Council of Nice to- 

 gether, was it agreed by all the prelates 

 present that it should be observed uni- 

 versally on the same date; but they 

 could not decide on any day or week, so 

 it was referred to the astronomers of 

 Alexandria, the seat of all astronomical 

 learning. They only established that 

 the day of the Crucifixion should be 

 commemorated on a Friday and the 

 Resurrection on the Sabbath. As late 

 as the eighth century the churches of 

 England and Ireland held the festival 

 on March 21, the church of Italy on 

 April 18, and Egypt a week later. 



For centuries it was a bitter conten- 

 tion between the western church 

 (Rome) and the eastern church (Con- 

 stantinople), but finally the Roman 

 church gave way to the eastern church, 

 and this accounts for the great Russian 

 nation differing from us and probably 

 most of the Asiatic churches. 



Respects to Constantioe. 



Before I close this brief theological 

 screed I would like to pay my respects 

 to the great Constantine, looked upon as 

 the great patron saint of Christianity. 

 He was born in Northumberland, Eng- 

 land, and was the son of a Roman gen- 

 eral of great ability as a warrior and 

 despot. He dethroned two or three other 

 profligates who posed as emperors of 

 Rome and then marched on and built 

 the great city of Constantinople. Per- 

 sonally, outside of his ability, he was a 

 sensual brute, a loafer and several times 

 a murderer, and only patronized Chris- 

 tianity because it was a step to tem- 

 poral power. 



What Matters It ? 



After all, what matters it about the 

 date at this late day? We find Asiatic 

 peoples murdering Jews, totally ig- 

 norant that the murder and resurrection 

 of the Young Man whom they commem- 

 orate, the greatest and purest that ever 

 lived, was a Jew himself. 



No matter the date, the grand central 

 fact is the world had an example of 

 what we should all try to be. My own 

 belief is if you ' ' do unto others as you 

 would they should do unto you, ' ' you 

 have compassed all there is in religion 



and theology. Ecclesi^sticism has 

 caused more hypocrisy, cruelty, misery 

 and murder than all other causes since 

 feeble man 's advent on this little sphere, 

 but we are progressing fast. 



The nineteenth century was a dandy. 

 The emancipation of thought and con- 

 science was greater in that century, a 

 thousand fold, than are the material 

 discoveries and inventions, such as loco- 

 motives, telegraph, telephone, etc. All 

 of you agreeing with me, we will now 

 get down to the practical. 



The Modem Easter. 



It is right and proper we should have 

 the annual festivals. It makes torpid 

 minds "sit up and think." The way in 

 which this festival is kept is as diverse 

 as the dates have been. In Russia it 

 may be in killing Jews; in Germany in 

 the growing of Easter or Ostern eggs, 

 most likely a survival of the embryonic 

 symbol of a new life (spring), and as 

 Germany sticks to medieval mythology 

 more than any other modern nation, it 

 is quite harmless. In our own enlight- 

 ened and blessed land it takes any form 

 that will gratify the donor and receiver, 

 and fortunately for our own sentimental 

 business, it has for a number of years 

 taken the form of an exchange of na- 

 ture 's products — a pretty plant or bunch 

 of flowers. 



If Easter came on a fixed date, say 

 for instance April 15, I don 't know that 

 we should be much ahead, for the uncer- 

 tainty of the weather would still exist. 



State of Stock. 



From what I hear, lilies would be 

 more plentiful if Easter were a Aveek 

 later. The scarcity in our town is not 

 attributed to lateness so much as poor 

 stock. The disease seems to have spread 

 to Japan, or else the bulbs are procured 

 from many different latitudes of this 

 elongated archipelago. Don't move a 

 lily from a warm house to one 20 de- 

 grees cooler unless the buds are white 

 and ready to burst open. After that 

 they will expand in almost any tempera- 

 ture. 



Of late we have had many days of 

 bright sunshine, which has upset ^our 

 calculations, especially in bulbous stock. 

 Shading, keeping off the direct rays of 

 the sun, will help greatly to retard. 



Rhododendrons show little sign of 

 opening their buds, but when they do 

 start tlxe plant is shortly in full bloom. 

 The great majority of azaleas will be 

 sure to be early enough. If that best of 

 all varieties, Mme, Van der Cruyssen, is 

 too early, it will keep to put them under 

 a high bench and cover with tissue 

 paper. Some years ago we tried the 

 basement of our ' ' shack " ; it did not 

 work; the blooms lost their color. 



Need for Space. 



We are all crowded just now, and you 

 must manoeuver. Think what is most 

 valuable to you, and some things not so 

 important must take a back seat. It 

 would be cruel and unwise to place a 

 hybrid perpetual rose at the side of a 

 path, but it will not hurt a spiraea to 

 treat it so. 



Speaking of the roses, don't expect all 



Raffia Hamper and Roses. 



r 



