408 
minutes. It is said that the 
plants require trimming al- 
most daily, so that the dial 
will remain clear and the 
figures be legible at a 
considerable distance. The 
hands, of wood painted 
white, are attached to the 
movement in a manner simi- 
lar to the hands of an or- 
dinary clock. 
Another American floral 
clock that was accorded a 
great deal of attention was 
the colossal time-piece laid 
out on the slope of Agri- 
cultural Hill in front of the 
Palace of Agriculture, at 
the Louisiana Purchase Ex- 
position. In magnitude, 
this gigantic clock surpassed 
everything previously at- 
tempted in this line, the dial 
being 120 feet in diameter, 
with numerals 15 feet in 
length. The hands each weighed in the neighborhood of 
25,000 pounds, the minute hand being 74 feet in length 
and travelling at a speed that would cause it to cover a 
distance of more than 500 miles in a year. 
The dial, probably the most elaborate and extensive 
decorative production of a floral character ever attempted, 
contained upwards of 18,000 growing plants. ‘The center 
was planted with 4,500 verbenas, surrounded by a border 
containing 1,000 Coleus Verschfeltii. “The numerals, from 
I to 12, required 2,500 plants of Coleus Hero, while the 
space surrounding them contained 3,000 Centaura Gyno- 
corpa, with 4,000 Centaurea Martinia Candidissima. In 
the yellow minute marks 1,500 Coleus Golden Bedder were 
used, the red minute marks using up 1,500 Coleus Versch- 
feltii. 
The dial was made, as a special exhibit, by the St. Louis 
Seed Co., and earned for them a gold medal. ‘The mechan- 
ism of the clock was constructed by the Johnson Service Co., 
Milwaukee, Wis., the movement being contained in a small 
building located between the clock and the Palace of Agri- 
AMERICAN HOMES AND *GARDEMS 
October, 1909 
Floral clock of the Savoy hotel, Interlaken, Switzerland 
culture. It was Grecian in design, except the roof, which 
was hemispherical and of cerulean blue, dotted with stars 
and showing the meridian lines, to represent the celestial 
arch. The southern wall of the little structure was of glass, 
screened by a revolving door which slid aside every hour, 
allowing a view of the works. Adjacent to this building 
stood a kindred structure, the roof of which represented the 
western terrestrial hemisphere, in which was housed a sonor- 
ous bell weighing about 5,000 pounds, the strokes of which, 
as they recorded the flight of the hours, could be heard all 
over the exposition grounds. On the other side of the clock 
house was a structure similar to the bell house, in which was 
housed an immense hour-glass that was reversed hourly by 
automatic machinery. This clock kept accurate time with- 
out a hitch all the time the fair was open. At night the dial 
was illuminated by electric lights. 
Such floral clocks as I have described, the first expense of 
the works once met, cost but little more for installation, and ° 
require hardly any more subsequent attention than is needed 
to keep an equally attractive laid out carpet bed in order. 
Periodical oiling and reg- 
ular winding is all that the 
mechanism, if skilfully and 
honestly constructed to be- 
gin with, calls for; the floral 
part of the work is only 
such as a competent gar- 
dener would be expected 
to undertake in connection 
with his duties in any 
well-kept public or private 
grounds, and its mainte- 
nance would be a source of 
gratification to the horti- 
culturist having a thorough 
knowledge of and pride in 
his calling. 
Such clocks are only 
suited to large places, as 
public parks and squares. 
Even with the most skilful 
they will entail great cost 
and are hardly, by their size 
and effect, available for the 
decoration of privateplaces. 
