THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUNDAY MORNING. AUGUST 23, I90S
1? warm rm n
mm
i
I- i f
I
OTDERFUL
PRICES OF
THEPRDCEMY
'J) ll '
t ,
- r i - r , v . , l l I J
PETUNIA andM
HERPRTOSISTEto
7 HA' seedsman took up a tiny spoon
of horn, smooth as a pearl all over,
with its cup the shape of a mustard
spoon, and no larger, if as large.
f'ery carefully he dipped it into the
little pile of drab ponder on the highly cal
endered paper before him, and scooped up
a liliputian spoonful. He sjiook ijwith
gentle solicitude, until the spoonful was
rounded of nearly level tilth the edge.
Then he deposited the pon der on a separate
i .1 r
paper, sucn as me arug
vist uses for his pre par a-
Hons. ft
"That ponder mivht
be gold dust from the J
way you handle it," re- "" v
rriuf hcm trie t ft. 1 1 1 j v u u IV vtl
spectator. . ' " XHf
"Gold dust!" the Y rn V L
seedsman retorted, dis
dainfully. "Why, this is
worth fifteen or twenty
times its weight in gold.
Man, this is double- '
fringed petunia seed, Yyy-
worth $3 a thousand
seeds at retail $300 or
$400 an ounce."
The interested spec
tator bnit over for a
..:
pur .
in 1
J-
4
Wlicther the florists drew their metaphor
from iuimitablo Homer, with liis refcVonce to
"rosy-fijigered dawn," or, whether they discov
ered the beautiful resemblance afresh for them
selves, need not matter. It is an exceptionally
true comparison, for the new variety 01 petunia
wears, in the most delitiatrt perfection, tho rosy
flush of tho dawning1 day, perhaps the most fas
cinating tint man's eyes can look upon.
It came from the north of Germany last
season, and. won instant favor. Unlike bo many
fads in flowers, whose triumphs can bo counted
by the hundreds, and whoso quick declino hap
pens almost as frequently, the rosy morn petu
nia, with its fringed edge and its exquisite pink
shadings, has been more popular this year than
when it made its cordially received debut.
Remarkable in such an event, ita prico re
mains low only 20 or 25 cents for a package of
half a hundred seeds. That makes its price at
least $500 an ounoo to the public; but still, at tho
charges tho public is called upon to pay for triv
ial packets, made out of the 100,000 and more
seeds that go into the ounce of the wholesaler, it
1 BSS4Bfks
Si
Vs
7
hi
is cheap coiopared with the 50 cents, per packet
charged for tho little imported collection of half
a dozen fringed varieties. They sometimes re
tail at $1000 for an ounce; while many double
fringed varieties of imported stock sell at 75
cents, or $1500 an ounce.
Yet the petunia is neither the most expen
sive nor the tiniest of the aristocratic flower
seeds.
There is the begonia, household word with
lovers of fine flowers, to whom its intense ver
milions, brilliant yellow and orange, rosy pink
and creamy whito blooms, measuring as large
as six inches across, have appealed irresistibly
for years.
Fine as are the seeds of the petunia, those
of the begonia are only half their size, almost as
delicate as the motes that fly in the sunbeams. In
England, where some of the choicest kinds are ,
produced, the buyer will pay $200 for an ounce,
if Bueh a riot of extravagance should occur to'
him; here, the charges on such seeds are usually
double. He would scarcely escape paying less
than $400.
But, abroad, as Jiere, the fine art of the
seedsman is called upon to plit and divide the
ounce, even, for the great florists, down to the
sixteenth and thirty-second fraction.
' All these seeds, from those at $5 an ounce,
;to those worth nearly $500, at wholesale rates,
,are sold in fractions of sixteenths and thirty
seconds. The public enjoys their outcome
through the efforts of the professional florist;
the very wealthy, through the skill of highly
paid gardeners.
, The seed of calceolaria, that strange, pocket-like
flower, which comes into bloom in the
early spring, with its "tigered"' and spotted blos
soms, is no larger than that of the begonia. Eng
land charges $100 an ounce for it there, and the
price riss to $250 by the time it is on sale in
the United States.
1
closer look. The seedsman waved him
away, in hasty apprehension.
"Don't breathe near that pile!" he
cried, warningly. ". single breath upon
those seeds might cost me $50 or $100.
This is prctt serious business."
r
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if
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PS,
1
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A r r i rn r f 1 s r- hy a river'? Iirim
A eli"vv r,r i'nrnse v'a : !i!m
And it ..s nothini; n,( :l - W
rds wt.rth.
1" Wonlswort
n;a-
iii'iro to the
- tl,. iirc. in rum
1 1 it: n : ; 1 -)m;t 1 tr'Tiii
r,. ((, U "t tilt- JH'Mllf"--'
'uii'c. ai'd tin- w!;"lcsal
r . m.i ,,t Hi. mi.
1 t- than th'
, r .,n
w c.rt h
;ii in tin-'
jir'tty ii ;h"y
it pays a quar
1 in!,! a ni i;g ah"iit
priinr'i- t '-'-njf s
a '. a In ,1 turn 1 m - p i
EYE.N ihf j r i in ri 1
tt-nali'-t is a ',,
M-cdiiiaii. ( 'far-'
jiarir-i'ii wi:h tin-
lives of the Tn tmiia.
average 'i,!"" in :h
price is u-ual! 1 t
nuni-r- a t""il i' a i
th-ir weight 111 - J .
When the p '.ill
pril('tnrinns ci ; :n f.
are nnd i"ar- an
Ver of a dollar t. r
fifty. S rvi 11 ih- Ki
iit la t U'Tth i7."i an
which virgin g'-ld )- '
W)f-!1 It (-fITii' t
the f-fis that hhi :
anxii'-u- -if-'l-n:..!! !iin,i"i
hi phrase h t'v. Vrry -ri-iu.
dfd;ir- I h r ;ri t 1 u-itu
I nit-d StHtfi Mjjii Kuri ; .
I v-t th'.-i- An- 'n n -j-'i r .
garden. iin'uV" -i ;n r ?y i ' 1 r
d Pf r i'f !;,.. 1 1 rv ph. iv.n l.v thr-m pur
rhafccl in 1 .'.1 r. r
id for a h i1
encf-d on it r-y th
Ihe thr dcmri !
Whfn tin- -.
, which cv'tild t -
rne'a fnrr-fiuki r.
an
of
)iuhi;
r.il roi
tho -
a j ' h 1 k 1
i of tl
I.. "p. '
., IIP,.
r. t . ri
eni.-e gh-aned hy modern horticulture, can
afford to own and enjoy some of them.
And that is precisely what the poor and the
fairl.v well off and the passahly rich do.
For then, even m their smallest, earli
est development, as they stand shyly in
their three-inch pots, the plants that have
grown from one of those thousand seeds,
which cn-t three for a cent, are worth from
15 to 05 cents api.cr n price at which
almost any one with an nmhitious taste in
plants ran own one or two.
By this time an mmee of the douhle
frmged petunias, which had cost the whole
saler $l.-'l in tho tir-t phvo and brought
h:rn between $:;" and .loi) in the second
iliice, have im-rea-t-.! in value to' IS'.'oOO.
-nice, grown into pen,'-, at I. a -1 ' loo.iMtu
m number, they hv . clear market value
at l.'i cent a plant, a- a rule, and 2," cents
i ii many iii-taie-os.
Hut t);,. jM iMlnjo. f the tiny pile of
lmpalpaelo dust in -1 o, that oriirinsl
v
1 hb 1 S
V
V V i
5f ' -
Re
-.i
it
1 j- n
were not yet t'X-
"un.-e 1 t ji; Miuia s, ,.,)
... . i T 1 1 ...
""-'I- l'U.V ( il,! IV, I'- J :;,t,i ilr. j.Jant-
r'' ' 11 ' of 1 loominc. m .,11 ,l,p hr,i-
UvWllliiV1
-ti r: 1.
tor
i aU--
( ut some of
mallness the
wa. mild in
1 li-llli -a it is, in-
. too, all (,fr the
. ds f.f the floral
1" and the gar-
V of th
t" I'l'irimn: .
: t s ma rkf ; p
f the po.-li.
t dust piii 1
every uiie of
l- -s than lalf
o 'lie Anal,
s that lay la-
he piper W8:
,1 1 unce. I ne
' d- i' r-xperi-se
trade sup-
h 1 s r-
s nf th j "unia. h';n"ired of
iK-red tip ', the damp t.p of
ave und rc -ne r.aiurp's mar-
Tlou trnf - n.n und. r 'he au-ir-cs of the
expert rrdTT r,r ion.t th results ar th
rarat an4 Ck charmirur rrrdoct of the ralm
t flowvra; ani yet th - rt amor thote who
$ te 'i'ntntg!y upon th ("awrt- nHt cf the
tkh, br ti hiii-a!aritl expfrt bricgi to
lar Mpvm their i-lantiaf and cultare all the aci-
il.ii.- aro
them v, a - t
a dollar a
lull worth
tent in tha
$.'.0,(111.
Throughout t he u-.t r
in New England ai d N'ew "
dor- of the petnn-a- f
h ight during the :,.;!
It is almost the I'!,, i.;.
the whole range h igh
flower feeds that 8'ts:
the mmmcr.
But it i fit to mni'
among all the rich rt r
i-on. rew plants r,tual it :n effectivens
for outdoor decoration or for house cul
turp. It maintain a contiguous sheet of
blom until killed by frot. The flowers
red. purplp. vhitp. yrl!ow and. again, ft-ar-rd
in coloring had a new hue added to
inf'T admirable repertory latt year.
fioriiU hare called it tha Roty Mora.
t ltd
bu: .
"rk. the aiilen-
(e s,-en at their
I the summer,
produced from
d, microscopic
:ts triumph in
i;n ;t distinction
-- r.ce of the sea-
i
'; ! "V-iAf
The
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k L L. S U 17 J a