Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1911 — CHANGES IN FLOWERS MODERN TASTE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER YEARS. [ARTICLE]

CHANGES IN FLOWERS MODERN TASTE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER YEARS.

Gardens of Today Would Bo Things V. of Wonder to Our Ancestors— All Countries Called on for Beauty of Color. It Is a truly astonishing tbing to reflect that Shakespeare, for all his love of flowers, would have been able to name scarcely a single bloom In a twentieth century garden, says the Strand. He would hardly have been able to distinguish the queem of flowers itself, so greatly has the rose changed In the last three centuries. As for the begonias, the chrysanthemums, the dahlias, the geraniums, the fußchias and carnations; these were unknown even to our great-grandfath-ers. Many of our most beautiful flowers are purely modern productions. Three centuries ago there were no flower gardens in England. What were then thought of as gardens were herbaria, places where rosemary, mint, rue, thyme and sage grew, and perhaps a few primitive blooms, Buch as violets and primroses,' were suffered to exist, much as poppies and cornflowers do today. Many well known plants have been developed from specimens discovered in various parts of the world, and there is no doubt that a number of charming novelties are still lurking undiscovered in remote spots. The chances of valuable finds are, however, becoming unfortiyiately less every year. A small army of collectors Is always at work in every corner of the world searching for new treasures to enrich our floral store. From South America came many years ago the recently unfashionable fuschia; from the hills of northern India and Tibet have been brought many useful varieties; from China we have had among other things many new primulas; Japan has yielded wonderful irises; Africa many varied plants, usually of most brilliant and gorgeous coloring; while numerous charming members of the narcissus family have been discovered in the Pyrenees. But this cannot continue indefinitely, and even In the realm of orchids, for which perhaps the most systematic search of all is made, there is not much left to be explored. For our future noveltieß we shall have to rely then chiefly on the skill of our hybridists, -yho are constantly engaged in mating different species of the same family of plants, and our cross fertilizers, who are doing similar work with different varieties of the same species. The flowers of today are the result of cross-breeding, stimulated by electricity, drugs and hot water batbß.