46 



The Florists' Review 



APBIL 2, 1914. 



for starting the heavy work of the day. 

 Everybody gets busy putting up orders, 

 probably turning them over to a ship- 

 ping clerk, someone who knows the 

 town and who has been placed in 

 charge of the delivery. 



The illustrations on page 53 are typi- 

 cal of the scene in an average flower 

 store Saturday evening before Easter. 

 In one picture, the full force is busy 



as it only skims on the surface of the 

 problem. 



Perfumes in general though they have 

 been among the common, familiar, 

 every-day contributors to man's enjoy- 

 ment since the world began, are so 

 elusive in their nature that they are 

 still somewhat mysterious. Scientists 

 admit that "the nature, of .-odorous 

 emanations is not well understood. ' ' 



A Basket of the Mixed Cut Flowers of the Spring Season. 



trimming and wrapping plants, while in 

 the other the packages are routed ready 

 for delivery. 



FRAGEANOE— WHAT IS IT? 



Why do certain varieties of flowers 

 have an odor, and others not any! For 

 instance, some varieties of carnations 

 are strongly scented, while others have 

 no fragrance whatever. Is it a law 

 of nature that cannot be explained! 

 Any reply will be gratefully received. 



S. J. 



It is a relief to know that S. J. will 

 be grateful for ' ' any ' ' sort of answer, 

 as this answer is not likely to be espe- 

 cially definite or decisive. S. J. 's own 

 words, "^ law of nature that cannot be 

 explained," is perhaps as applicable to 

 the case as anything that can be said. 

 The question can be partly answered, 

 no doubt, by stating that flowers, like 

 all plants and animals, are subject to 

 the law of natural selection or the sur- 

 vival of the fittest. Other things being 

 equal, fragrant flowers are the fittest 

 and therefore have the best chance of 

 survival. To be more explicit, flowers 

 owe their existence largely to their 

 fragrance; their fragrance not only 

 wins the favor and protecting care of 

 the human race, but also attracts the 

 insects that aid in propagation. Hence 

 the tendency is for fragrant species of 

 flowers to increase in numbers, while 

 odorless flowers tend gradually toward 

 extinction, except in cases where their 

 exceptional beauty, or their great hardi- 

 ness, or some other quality compensates 

 for their lack of perfume. But that 

 theory, though it has the sanction of 

 evolutionist science, is really about as 

 much of an evasion as an explanation, 



They say that fragrant substances seem 

 to produce their effect by emitting a 

 vapor, or aerial or extremely minute 

 particles, and yet they acknowledge 

 that ' * a few grains of musk or other 

 strongly odorous substance will scent 

 an apartment for a long period, and at 

 the end of the time no loss of weight 

 can be detected by the most delicate 

 experiments. ' ' 



The question under consideration re- 



minds one of Thomas Carlyle's remark 

 about electricity. He said: "We call 

 that fire of the black thunder-cloud 

 electricity, and lecture learnedly about 

 it, and grind the like of it out of glass 

 and silk; but what is it? What made 

 it? Whence comes it? Whither goes 

 it?" Even the wizardly Edison can- 

 not yet answer Carlyle's questions. It 

 has been decided that electricity is 

 probably ^'ot a subtle fluid, as it was 

 formerly dcfined,.,but a subtle something 

 else, whic].! ,,will t'.not keep still long 

 enough to t be. properly photographed or 

 submit to any^pther process of identifi- 

 cation, but nevertheless will work for 

 us "like lightning" if we provide 

 proper channels for it to work in. It is 

 practical experiment that has brought 

 electricity under control, and practical 

 experiment can also do much iu control- 

 ling and improving the fragrance of 

 flowers, though we cannot, to save our 

 lives, tell just what fragrance is. 



PELARGONIUM EASTER GREETING 



I receive so many letters asking how 

 to propagate Easter Greeting pelargo- 

 niums that I thought the subject might 

 be of general interest. The number of 

 inquiries might lead one to think that 

 there had been trouble in propagating 

 it, though that seems scarcely proba- 

 ble when one takes into account the 

 vigor of the plants. Whether the prop- 

 agation of over 50,000 plants from eight 

 rooted cuttings in just three j'ears can 

 be called an achievement, I can not say. 

 Personally, I should say not in the 

 case of Easter Greeting. 



In reply to an inquiry for stock of 

 Easter Greeting, a pelargonium special- 

 ist said: "Yes, I have Easter Greet- 

 ing, but, owing to its persistent bloom- 

 ing, I find that it is difficult to propa- 

 gate it rapidly." Now, I think that 

 is the trouble, if there has been any 

 trouble. In the case of many plants, 

 when a flower stem appears behind a 

 leaf there is no growth bud, and this is 

 true of Easter Greeting. I have rea- 

 son to believe, too, that some growers 

 have forced it both in the stock bench 

 and in the cutting bed — an unwise 

 thing to do with any plant. Pelargo- 



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Gilendulas and Valley in an Ivory-finished Basket. 



