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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1913)
(I 8 . - i THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN'. FORTLAyP. APRIL 13, 1913. 4 JJictQ&&piejwJ2echj&&JValur& V&Jlfi JKjziazJn d SoJtGSOfJ?ioto drctpfi r. Joy of the people of the out-id. . The - f IVS '-.t)ffT rf WtMuhffV'W pu.y willow. not uncommonly ? V VW - i iVl T7ieP?" ' I WWffMpSL wJf WiMv WI ' orn In February. The Ted and yellow V J I ? 7 Jl?J?e&& 'NlllXi '!) ihvUlh 'ft i'V ff'JfW MfMiWnini f I . and Kreen and brown of their .oft and T ' v i , f1 , ''' TsT&eJ mW 'MiV imfcllH lift And there I. the hepatic, th.t crowd. ' ' ijf ' tVA W tl' ytfMlM(M J 4 close on the heels of the skunk cb- JL-. S JMaiMkV. 4 fulfil ikf 1 iLxlff'USI b.Re and often shows itself among the Jfl VI 1 1 1 1 ' l ft? i if i snow, of early Spring-. When the men r III1' - If llVifirlr of Vermont bo forth to tap the maple .,.,,ai r ' 'ZC 'jflffU tree for Its sap that bealn. to rise with - -' Sr?S. N ! ' the flr.t they often And the delicate , Cj'Cl white and pink star-sh.ped flowers t . " NX, . blossoming; at their roots. The anem- jT - v ' . ?Sv. - " " one 1. likewise a child of the early - t I . , .V ' f tc-pV -viS:sa ' , " Spring; a frail creature known also as jf " V ' - U 1 , - , the wind flower. ... , , " ' I - V mmm IK Government has .n official pho- D tofcraphcr to the flower world. The month of April and May com prise hi buvy period, for then all the wonder-world of nature Is putting on It garland. Today he 1. somewhere In -the wilds seeking- out rare blooms of Iwauty vr better known flower. In new and striking guise.. That he may know what he should picture and the value of the things he uncounters. be ha, of necessity, be oome a man steeped in the lore of the woods and the fields. Ills story of the watch for the appearance of the flowers In their cycle of the spring time weeks Is full of nature lqre from a new angle. This photographer is C I Cran dall. and for years he has made pic ture, for the I'rp.rtment of Agricul ture. In all those experiment, of the Government scientist. In their hot bouses, where they seek to breed flow er, that the world never saw before, and In the gardena that grow a wealth of rare bloom to decorate the White House on festive occasions. F. U. Cran dal! Is the photographer artist who records the beauties of those blooms. He baa pictured many flowers that hav. bloomed in these hothouse, for the first time since flower, began to bloom, for they were originated here, tie ha. pictured rare orchids that have been sent to the White House gar dena from the end. of the earth. He ha pictured the first blossoms In America of plants, the seed for which acrtcultural explorer, h.ve sent home from the high Himnlaya. or the jungles of darkest Africa. For Crandall Is the flower photog rapher of the OovemmenU Ho makes the flower pictures that appear In all the Government publications. But above and beyond tbt. he is attempt ing to register a photograph of every flower that blooms in the wilds, that the Government or the naturalist or the nature lover may have true ma terial for lllutmtln whenever these beauties of nature arc being por trayed. Prophets of Spring. So Crandall knowa the thing, in n ture that first appear In the Spring. He knows the procession of flowers a. they follow, one after another. He knowa the haunts In which they are found and the trick, of getting them on record. There Is. for Instance, the skunk cab bage, the first bloom of them all to ap pear In the Spring. Often the snow 1. still on the ground when the skunk cabtage pushes Its way through the fe cund earth and bursts Into bloom. The flower Is protected by a shell-like cov ering that reveal. It from only one aide, the whole being something like a cabbage with a hollow interior a a vase for a flower. The flower, to be are. ha. a bad odor, from which It take, its name. Ita prime virtue of being the first of them all to appear and the additional fact that it is an edible plant, largely redeem the skunk cabbage from the Ignominy of its odor. Following closely on the heel, of the skunk cabbage, according to the dower pUotographer. come, the bloom of the trailing arbutus Thi. well-known plant that scrambles about the sandy, rocky hillside, of the eastern half of the continent, puts forth It. dower, in clusters at the ends of its vines. They are waxlike and pink, and have an odor much like that of the water lily. The skunk cabbage of the Jo an odorlthei r. D ow. wel the Whew Spring Has Arrived. By this time Spring 1. a thing of re allty. The gray poplar has burst into bloom overhead and the blue violets, say. the photographer, are to be seen In the irsn and a handful of them may be gathered for milady, corsage. The bird-foot violet I. the largest of the blue violets, though not as early as some. They grow in the border, of fields and In thin woods, hiding mod estly close to the ground. The com mon violet may shade Into purple. while the sweet, white violet, most fragrant of them all and the smallest. Is of a modester color. The yellow vio let i. the tallest and proudest and choose, the dry hillsides, though It may often be found looking into the waters of a brook, as though to get a view of the reflection of Itself. The so-called dog-tooth violet Is not a violet at all and its other name of fawn lily 1. much more appropriate. The lady'. .Upper, come later In the Spring and may not be found a. yet anywhere except In the far South. These lady, slippers are real aristo crats among the wild flowers. They are orchids, and orchids are the fancy and pride of many a magnificent gar' den. Kmlssarlea of flower fanciers travel- the world around gathering or chids and .ingle plant, .re often worth thousands of dollars. l et the lady s slippers are royal orchids. They are things of beauty, but not ao highly prised as those that are more difficult to procure, in the White House gar dens there Is the rarest of these flow ers, the spotted leopard orchid of Af rica, which Mr. Crandall has here pic tured. osae Flower Coasewla... To the Nature student there is an eternal comedy enacted In the woods. with the lady', slipper and the humble bee a. the principal. This plant may be fertilized and Its seeas made to lt in but one way. by the bumble bee carrying the pollen of one nower to another. Realizing this, the lady's slipper places the bait of great quanti ties of honey near lu opening to in due the bumblebee to enter. The flower wants him inside, that pollen may be smeared all over him. The door t. ao .mall that he may barely aqueew through. The be doe. to and eat. ms nit oi the honey and I. ready to go. He finds the door so small that he may not back out of It. There 1. the light of a .mall aperture ahead of him. and he .tart. Ui It. He rau.t crowd bl. way through bv main force, and In ao doing he get. all gummed np and pollen galore sticks to him. When be enter, other Tiowers he Is prepared thoroughly to fertilize them. Dutchman", breeches 1. another or comedians of the flower world. 1 TSiCb Is a delicate-etemmed. arlstocraUo of these plants. im long arms ui flower, despite It. plebeian name a what are to oe rem leaves snoot " thing acquired from the ahape of its the ground in the early Spring and the petals. Jack-ln-the-pulplt is another knotty fist that is on the end of them comedian who stands debonair in his -opens out most stealthily until it be- .heltered nook and goea out In a flame of glory In the form of cluster, of bright red berries that supersede mm. The great family of ferns are or. narennlal Interest, say. Mrs. Crandall. to the Individual who haunts the woods, and one of the early Spring wonder. Itl-1. the unwinding ot the great leaves comes a mujti-leaf with every finger a rib. At .bout this period of the glory of the Spring there appears the dogwood blossom, one of the handsomest of the flowering trees. Later the flowers will give place to bright red berries. Most of the- berries-of. the- woods -asa-brlght red. They do it on purpose, and there is an economic reason. The berry wants to attract the attention of the birds. It wants to be eaten by the bird. As an additional Inducement It puts on a layer of gummy substance that is good bird food. So the bird is attracted and &ftiia.llv eats the berrv. The gummy layer is digested off of the seed, but its germ is more ream ent. This the bird drops at some place which the tree hopes will be favorable to Its growth, and perhaps another great tree results. So is the bird in duced to scatter the seeds of trees. The red bud or Judas tree also lights flame on the hillside, a thing of glory when viewed from a distance, but dis solving Into nothing when approached for dose inspection, and because of this deception given the name of the man moat .corned. Nearly all the trees, even to the pine, have blossoms, a fact not generally recognized. TriboJ.tloa. of Pnetoa-rapaer. The flower photographer recites the many tribulations that beset the path of him who would record the flowers in their happiest moods. Mr. Crandall, for Instance, one day started out for some ploture. of old-fashioned tansy, a plant that was familiar to most child hoods and which has a way of bloom inr around deserted farmsteads. With hi tjiirty-pound outfit on his back be of the plant, and never exposed a neg ative in a whole day. The next morn ing he stumbled upon a bed of it in I hundred yard, of camp. t Again, he found that there was md in his Dlcture collection with re lation to black cohosh. He was camped beside Lake Bomoseen, in Vermont, and searched its shores- for days. One afternoon he was crossing the lake in a boat and a squall drove him ashore and into the very arms of the loug- soueht cohosh. Again, there was a handsome blooming shrub that required Just the right light for the proper ef fect. The sun was wrong, and the DhotograDher sat and waited for si hours, until It had traversed the sky and shone in exactly the right way for the picture. These searches often keep the pho tographer In the open for longer periods than he had intended and at times the grip of hunger is upon Dim. Having grown wise to the ways of the woods he is usually able to find some thing that will sustain him. There is. for instance, the bud of the sweet flag, which is like okra in appearance but smaller. ' It is good to eat and nourish ing. There is also the neart ot tne water lily, the fairest of all flowers In its cool nurity. its pleasing fragrance. its restful fitting into the scheme of things about a. quiet pool. Tba neart good to eat. quite satisfying and of such -'e as to be of importanre as a food. The." there js the heart f the fern. Here is to be found a piere of plant food that may serve an Important pur pose and that has saved many a friend from hunger. Aside from these there are the well-known berries and nuts that may often be relied upon to fur nish a wholesome meal. ' Flower. That Flame. The lilies of the field that "toil not. neither do they spin." are infinite in number and in variety. When myriads of them lift their heads above the grass of the meadow or wave a welcomo to the mower at haying time, they lay down a scene of beauty hard to surpass. Their orange or yellow or brick red flowers that last but for a day throw a deal of glory Into that short span. The poppy is not a native of the Eastern states. Many gardens in many states have grown the opium poppy of China and India, however, arid the in troduced plant has taken to the woods until it has become no uncommon sight to find clusters of these purple blos soms of unsurpassed beauty In almost any field. ' Then there Is the yellow poppy of California and of many of tho other Pacific Coast states, that lays down such a carpet of gold as is rarely revealed anywhere else In the world. It Is the glory of the flower-loving tourist to climb a spur of the Rockies after abundant Spring rains havo awakened the dormant poppies that have seeded In the desert. If the timo is ripe that tourist may look away as far as the eye can reach in this dry atmosphere and that carpet of yellow is spread out interminably for ,10 orH" miles upon the desert. The sea of yel low billows without end before the breezes that sweep from the mountains. Among the introduced flowers that the photographer may encounter is tho great lotus from Egypt, that subtile flower that Is reputed to steal Into the veins of the eaters of It and breed strange fantasies. The lotus is a wa ter Illy that sometimes measures a foot or more across and that is an amazon of the flower world. In many Ameri can gardens it has been set to grow in cement tanks kept supplied with wa ter. It has overrun these tanks and gained the American streams and may today be found growing in all Its se ductive glory in the streams tributary to the Potomac below Washington and In many other places. So is it becoming possible that the minds that dominate this, the most powerful civilization of modern times, may find at hand the mystic flower upon which the nobles of ancient Egypt fed until their faculties, were drugged Into inaction and the race dominanco was gone. The material Is being placed at hand that may convert the men of America into the lotus eaters of mod ern times. So does the flower photographer en counter one after another of the flowers that bloom In the Spring, about every one of which there is a romance, a pontu, or a flame of sentiment. Job's tears, purple and petite, appear for a few hours and are gone. The bellwojrt hangs for a while on its delicate stern. Thero Is the lily of thi valley which also hangs forth graceful bells. Thero is the family of flags and another of pinks, there are meadowsweets and wild roses, there are the laurels of tho mountain side and the daisies of the fields, morning glories and forget-me-nots, there is Black-eyed-Susan and the sneeze weed, that : large family of thistles, and the rattlesnake plant. There are flowers without end at this season of the year and the tales of them and the pictures might go on for ever. B ' (Copyright, 1913, by W. A. Du Puy.) The 13 Superstitions tramped tO miles- without ever -iglitl. th waur lily It xautat that Is What is the foundation of the "thir teen" superstition? Why . Is it, now that we are fully started in the year 1913. that the superstitious are be coming more and more weighted down with the burden of their Inexplicable fears? For they are unexplaainable no one can tell you Just why they are In such dread of the number if you press them for a reason. Neither is it In English-speaking countries that the date is a fateful o?e. You can trace it in France, where the Minister postpones the publication of the names of a new Cabinet, that the list may not appear on the 13th of the month. You meet with it In Germany, too. where even Bismarck would rather sacrifice ' a dinner than make one of 13 at a table. Again, you can come across the same superstitious terror In Switzerland, In Italy and in the Scandinavian countries. You find it on the Stock Exchange, and even in gay. cynical Paris it-creeps out when a holiday starts on the 13th and nan the people stay shame-facedly at homo. An Kne-llHh exnert along eiausucai lines has recently compiled some valu able information on this queer but In teresting subject. The superstition. tracorl hark to antiaulty, IS tnougni m have its foundation in all Scandinavian countries In mythology. Their ancient gods and goddesses apparently loathed the number, but back of that none can go. As for the reason in England, two explanations are offered, though prob ably not one person in 1000 who cherishes the delusion can really tell t h.m nnA author tv ascribes the wnoio tradition to the ill-luck thought to be associated ,;from the fact that 13 sat down to the last supper. But why any blighting or pernicious influence should result in manainn from that solemn gathering no man or woman of any sane mind has ever been able to say. Though there are schol ars who explain the terror by pointing out that since Judas, who was the first to quit the table, hanged himself, the superstition has come down through the ages since then. But there is another and more def inite reason for ita origin, which was only reached after a long and labori ous search on the part of a number of learned men. "The superstition," they say, "that where a company of persons amounts to 13, one of them will die within the twelvemonth afterward, seems to be founded on the calcula tion, adhered to by the insurance of fices, which presume that out of 13 persons taken indiscriminately, one will die within the year." Apparently the superstition comes from a ridiculous deduction from Bib lical history, 6r from the chance cal culation, of some forgotten insurance man's computation, whose theory would probably be upset in five min utes by ao modern authority upon 1U average, of healthy Individuals. ..-