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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



June 11, 1908. 



presume not. This being so, we would 

 like to give a prize next year for the best 

 twelve of one variety shown. 



O. W. D 'Alcorn. 



t: 



Annual pink lupines. 



Then useful annuals are well adapted 

 for indoor culture and can easily be had 

 in bloom for Christmas. The illustration 

 herewith does not show by any means 

 the b^st spikes; much finer ones can be 

 produced under bench culture. The se6d 

 from which th^ flowers fwere cut at 

 Christmas was sown in smalt pots the^ 

 first week in September, one or two deeds ' 

 being |>placed in each pot. The plants 

 were kept in a coldframe and later in a 

 cold house, just clear of freezing, being 

 placed in a night temperature of 50 de- 

 grees a-, month or ..so before the flowers 

 were cut. They were grown in boxes 

 containing six inches of compost. •, 



Anyone desiring a. pleasing variety _of 

 annuals to grow under glass should try 

 lupines. Sown in a bench in a house 

 kept in winter at 45 degrees at night, 

 they will make sturdy plants and produce 

 fine spikes. Four months from seed sow- 

 ing to flowering is ample. The flowers 

 last well in water and make a desirable 

 addition to midwinter flowers. Of the 

 many shades cultivated, the pink colored 

 one is the most effective. 



W. N. Craig. 



in ha vail 



Jared G. Smith, special agent in charge 

 of the government experiment station at 

 Honolulu, writes as follows of the trade 

 interests in Hawaii: 



"The flower business of the islands 

 is largely in the hands of Hawaiians and 



Francisco. The opportunity is open in 

 the production of the finer types and 

 strains of cut flowers, ferns, greenhouse 

 plants and ornamentals, as in the case 

 of vegetables of improved types. 



"Besides the opportunities for florists, 

 there are openings for the establishment 

 of nurseries to supply fruit, Shade and 

 forest trees. There., is no commercial 

 nursery and no local seed house in this 

 territory. ' ' 



WOOD PRESERVATION, ■ 



What W'oo^ Preservation Means. 



The cost of wood is today a big item 

 to everyone who must use timber where 

 it is likely to decay. How to reduce the 

 expense of timbers which must constantly 

 be replaced has become a vital problem. 

 The kinds of timber used in contact with 

 the soil are becoming scarcer and scarcer 

 and their prices higher and. higher... Long 

 misuse of the forest has brought its sure 

 result. Even with the most eflScient 

 management it would be a long time 

 before the supply of the best timbers 

 would increase in quantity or decrease 

 in price. 



There are two ways in which the sit- 

 uation may be met. One is to prolong 

 the life of the forest by wise use; the 

 other is to prolong the life of timbers in 

 service by treating them with some pre- 

 servative. 



It is easy to see that if the length of 

 time timbers can be used is doubled, only 

 half as much timber will be required as 

 before and only one-half as much money 

 will need to be spent in the purchase of 

 timber. This is the chief gain in treat- 

 ing wood with preservatives. Yet there 

 is another and important one. Many 

 woods, which for a long time were con- 



Annual Pink Lupine, Photographed Christmas, 1907. 



Japanese. Carnations, violets and asters 

 flower almost continuously, especially at 

 elevations above 1,000 feet. /The Hono- 

 lulu market is well supplied with flow- 

 ers, such as they are, but a number of 

 florists find it profitable to bring con- 

 siderable quantities of the finer classes 

 of cut flowers in cold storage from San 



sidered almost worthless, can be treated 

 and made to last as long as the scarcer 

 and more expensive kinds. This of course 

 means that the consumer will have the 

 choice of a much greater number of 

 woods than he had before and at less 

 cost. 



Wood preservation, then, prolongs the 



life of timbers in use, reduces their cost, 

 and gives to the user a wider choice of 

 woods than ever before. 



Methods of preservation must be varied 

 for different localities and different 

 kinds of wood, and the U. S. Forest 

 Service has issued several publications 

 which deal with the problems presented 

 in different regions. These publications 

 and detailed information can be had 

 upon application to the Forester, at 

 Washington, 



What Decay Is. 



The' decay of a plant body, such as 

 wood, is not an inorganic process like 

 the rusting of iron or the crumbling of 

 stone, but is due to the activities of low 

 forms of plant life called bacteria and 

 fungL Bacteria are among the simplest 

 of all forms of life, often consisting of 

 but a single cell, microscopic in size. 

 Sometimes several such cells may be at- 

 tached to each other, -and. so form a 

 thread or filament. Csually they are 

 colorless, and multiply by the division 

 of the parent cell into other cells, which, 

 in turn, divide again. 



Fungi, although much more compli- 

 cated than bacteria, are also low in the 

 scale of creation when compared with 

 familiar flowering plants and shrubs. 

 They consist merely of tiny threads or 

 hyphse, which are collectively known as 

 the mycelium. In many of the higher 

 forms of fungi the threads grow together 

 to form compact masses of tissue. Fa- 

 miliar examples of these forms are the 

 toadstools, which grow on damp, rotting 

 logs, and the "punks," or "brackets," 

 on the trunks of trees in the forest. 



The causes of decay in wood, however, 

 are not these fruiting bodies themselves. 

 Spores, very primitive substitutes for 

 seed, which are borne in the countless 

 compartments into which the under sur- 

 faces of the fruiting bodies are some- 

 times divided, are produced in infinite 

 number, and are so fine that they can be 

 distinguished only by the microscope. 

 When seen in bulk they appear as the 

 finest dust. Like dust, they are carried 

 by the wind and strike all portions of 

 the surrounding objects. Few species of 

 fungi successfully attack healthy living 

 trees, and only a comparatively small 

 number can attack and destroy wood. 

 Yet the spores of some find a lodging in 

 dead portions of a tree or in cut timber, 

 and, if the wood is moist and in the 

 right condition for the spore to grow, 

 it germinates and sends out a thin, film- 

 like white thread, which, by repeated 

 branching, penetrates the entire Structure 

 of the wood. These are the real agents 

 of decay. 



This is not the only way that a fungus 

 can enter a sound stick of timber; for 

 if a good stick is lying close to a rotting 

 one, the mycelium may grow over or 

 through the moist ground and so reach 

 the sound stick, which it immediately at- 

 tacks. Sometimes, too, when a tree is 

 cut it already has a fungus growing in 

 its wood. If the fungus happens to be 

 a true parasite — that is, if it can grow 

 only in living tissues — it will die when 

 the tree is felled; but if it has been ac- 

 customed to growing in the heartwood of 

 the tree, which is practically dead, it 

 may continue to live and develop even 

 after the tree has been sawed into tim- 

 ber. 



Wood is composed of minute cells. The 

 chief material of the cell-walls is a sub- 

 stance called cellulose, and around this 

 there are incrusted many different or- 

 ganic substances known collectively as 

 lignin. Most of the wood-destroying 

 fungi attack only the lignin; others at- 



