In conclusion: In the event that you run upon any virus diseased plants among your stock, 
deal with the situation rationally. It would be utterly senseless to destroy an entire planting because 
there are a few virus infected plants among them - all that needs to be done is to promptly remove 
the infected plants, together with all of their bulblets, and to destroy them completely by burning. 
If this is done the remainder of your stock will be perfectly safe. 
O 
Too bad that growers could not have had, some years earlier, the information on virus diease 
that is now available, for if they had it would have saved them considerable time and loss of stock. 
Most certainly I would not have planted a field of peas next to my glad patch, as I did for two 
years in succession. As a result of this mistake I did get some virus disease among my stock the 
past season - however, I kept a close watch over my planting throughout the blooming season and 
I feel quite certain that all virus disease has been eliminated from the larger stock which bloomed 
in 1948. I cannot, of course, be equally sure of the smaller stock until it also has been rogued when 
it blooms. 
In case that any customer should find virus disease in any large bulbs purchased from me, 
thie diseased bulbs will be cheerfully replaced if the purchaser will notify me of the fact. In the 
case of smaller, unbloomed stock, I shall add to all such orders more than enough extra count to 
insure that he will have the full number of virus free bulbs that he ordered. 
WHY ARE THERE FLOWERS? 
In the scheme of nature, flowers are not only important but actually essential, for they contain 
the reproductive organs upon which the perpetuation of the species depends. 
Reproduction in higher plants is through the medium of seeds and the first step in seed pro- 
duction is fertilization. In order to accomplish fertilization it is necessary for the pollen from the 
anthers to reach the stigma of the pistil. The transfer of the pollen grains to the pistil may be 
effected in different ways; in some flowers fertilization may be accomplished entirely through air 
currents which carry the pollen, but the great majority of plants are fertilized by insects which, 
in their travels from flower to flower, carry the pollen from one flower to other flowers and thus 
effect cross pollenation. The various colors, their nectar, and perhaps their perfume, are natures 
devices for attracting insects to the flowers in order to insure fertilization. 
To summarize - in order to survive, every species must be able to reproduce itself. In the 
higher types of plants reproduction is through seeds, and seeds develop only after fertilization 
has been accomplished. Since the organs necessary for reproduction are located in the flowers, 
and only in the flowers, it is obvious that, without flowers there could be no reproduction since 
there would be no seeds. 
THAT is the reason why there are flowers. From nature’s standpoint flowers are merely very 
necessary utilitarian structures. 
Man has chosen to look at flowers from a very different point of view: to him flowers represent 
a gift from the creator, designed to afford him pleasure and enjoyment. 
Every gardener knows, only too well, that the inconspicuous blooms of purslane, chickweed, 
shepherd's purse, lamb’s quarters, and pigweed, to mention only a few - are quite adequate to 
insure reproduction. Why, then, the gorgeous petalage of such flowers as roses, orchids, gladiolus, 
and countless others? It is not at all essential in the actual reproduction process - and surely it was 
not designed to appeal to the esthetic instincts of insects. If flowers were really meant to appeal 
to the esthetic sense of someone, that someone would logically be man. 
Many flowers are beautiful and their beauty has appealed to man from time immemorial. It 
is quite probable that, as far back as the Neanderthal age, swains have tried to please their ladies 
with bouquets of flowers picked in forest and field. To-day, with more and finer flowers available 
at every season of the year, their use has reacked mammoth proportions and the growing and 
selling of flowers have become major industries. 
Among the flowers of to-day the gladiolus now ranks as second, being surpassed only by 
the rose, and that by only a few percentage points, and it seems likely that it may soon become 
