THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
435 
THE 
GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 
OF AMERICA. 
Published by 
THE CHRONICLE PRESS, Inc. 
Office of Publication 
286 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK 
MARTIN C. EBEL, Editor 
EDITORIAL OFFICES— MADISON, N. J. 
Subscription Price, 12 Months, $1.50 
Foreign, $2.00 
Entered as second class matter Nov. 3. 1914, at the Post Office at New 
York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
Published on the 15th of each month. 
Advertising forms close on the 1st preceding publication. 
For advertising rates apply to 286 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. All edi- 
torial matter should be addressed to M. C. Ebel, Editor, Madison, N. J. 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 
Treasurer, 
JAMES STUART, 
Mamaroneck. N. Y. 
President, Vice-President, 
W. N. CRAIG, THEO. WIRTH, 
Brookline, Mass. Minneapolis, Minn. 
Secretary, MARTIN C. EBEL, Madison, N. J. 
TRUSTEES FOR 1916. 
Peter Duff, Orange N. J.; William H. Duckham, Madison, N. J.; William 
Turner, Bernards villc, N. J. ; William Kleinheinz, Ogontz, Pa.; John F. 
Huss. Hartford, Conn. 
DIRECTORS. 
To serve until 1917 — Wm. Hertrick, San Gabriel, Cal. ; Robert Angus, 
Tarrytown, N. Y. ; Robert Bottomley, New Canaan, Conn. ; Alex. Fraser, 
Newport, R. I.; Arthur Smith, Reading, Pa.; Thomas W. Head, Lake 
Forest, 111.; L. P. Jensen, St. Louis, Mo. 
To serve until 1918 — William H. Waite, Rumson, N. J.; William J. 
Kennedy, Chestnut Hill, Mass.; Edward Kirk, Bar Harbor, Me.; John W. 
Johnston, Glen Cove, N. Y.; Carl N. Fohn, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Petei 
Johnson, Dallas, Tex. ; Thomas Proctor, Lenox, Mass. 
To serve until 1919 — John W. Everitt, Glen Cove, N. Y.; Thomas W. 
Logan, Jenkintown, Pa., Robert Cameron, Cambridge, Mass.; John Canning, 
Ardsley, N. Y. ; A. Bauer, Deal Beach, N. J.; David Fraser, Pittsburgh, Pa.; 
George W. Hess, Washington, D. C. 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PARK SUPERINTENDENTS 
Secretary-Treasurer, 
ROLAND W". COTTERILL, 
Seattle, Wash. 
ERNST STREHLE, CLARENCE L. BROCK, 
St. Louis, Mo. Houston, Texas. 
ALEX. STUART, CHARLES W. DAVIS, 
Ottawa, Canada. Memphis, Tenn. 
President, 
JOHN F. WALSH, 
New York, N. Y. 
HENRY W. BUSCH. 
Detroit, Mich. 
HERMAN W. MERKEL, 
New York, N. Y. 
Vol. XX. 
October, 1916. 
No. 10 
INTERNATIONAL FLOWER SHOW. 
TTHE date of the next International Flower Show, to 
be held at the Grand Central Palace, New York, 
was mentioned in the first preliminary schedule as March 
16 to 23. 
This is an error. The correct dates of the coming 
exhibition are March 15 to 22. 
John Young, Secretary. 
A PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTEST. 
A PRIZE of ten dollars is offered for the best photo- 
graph of the largest and best colored Blue Spruce 
(Kosteri). The only rules of the contest are that all 
photographs submitted must be accompanied by authentic 
data as to the height, circumference of branches, etc. 
Contestants may send as many photographs as they de- 
sire, but all w ill become the property of the Gardeners' 
Chronicle. A competent judge will decide the contest, 
which will close on December 31, 1916. Photographs and 
all particulars should be forwarded to Editor. Garden- 
kk>' Chronicle, Madison, X. J. 
PLANT ASSIMILATION. 
By C. M. Scherer, Ohio. 
HP HE term "assimilation," as it is usually applied by 
scientists to plant activities, signifies all the proc- 
esses involved in the transformation of the raw mineral 
products, as they are found in the soil and air, into the 
living tissues of the plant itself. 
In order to carry on this great work, we must first 
have the healthy, vigorous plant, usually with its mvriads 
of living cells, each of which has a definite work to per- 
form. This living working organism can easilv be com- 
pared to a factory with its many workmen busily en- 
gaged in the manufacture of some product. When we 
have the factory and the workmen, or in other words, 
the plant and its cells, we have to supply a motive force 
which sets the machinery running. In the present in- 
stance the power plant is the sun, whose ravs of light 
and heat are collected by one set of workers and are 
applied to the plant machine. Various other sets of 
workers collect from the soil and air the raw materials, 
which, eventually, will lie the finished plant products. 
The raw materials absolutely necessary before a plant 
can begin its work are ten elementary substances, namely : 
iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium, hydrogen, oxygen, 
nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and sulphur. These ele- 
ments are available to the plants occasionallv in the pure 
form as oxygen from the air, but usually in the form of 
compounds, or, in other words, substances made up of 
two or more elements such as water, which is composed 
of hydrogen and oxygen. 
Before the plant is able to use the various raw mate- 
rials, it is necessary that the elements be broken up into 
exceedingly small particles known as atoms and the 
compounds broken up into exceedingly small particles 
known as molecules. This breaking up process is accom- 
plished by dissolving the materials in water. In the case 
of carbon which is taken from the air in the form of 
carbon dioxide, a gas, the gas is disolved in a thin film 
of water which surrounds the cells forming the air 
passages in the leaf. In the case of those elements which 
are taken from the soil, such as nitrogen, iron, magnesium, 
potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and sulphur, the solu- 
tion is made by a very thin film of water which envelopes 
the tiny root hairs. 
After the substances have been dissolved, they pass 
through the thin tender plant tissues by a process known 
as diffusion. The water itself passes through by a proc- 
ess known as osmosis and in so doing develops a pres- 
sure which takes it to the tops of our highest trees. 
After the raw materials are inside the plant they are 
transferred to the leaves where, by a process known as 
photosynthesis (building up by means of light), they 
are combined into carbohydrates such as starch and 
sugar. To complete the transformation of the raw 
materials into the living products such elements as ni- 
trogen, phosphorus and sulphur are added to the carbo- 
hydrates, thereby forming the proteins which are among 
the most complex substances known, defying analysis 
by the most expert chemists. 
