Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/227

Rh When, however, one has seen that the aromatic plants of Australia are almost free from attacks of insects and fungi, and has learned to look on the impregnating substances in some cases as protective against predatory insects and small foes of all kinds, and in others as fungicidal, he is tempted to ask whether all the substances of marked odor which we find in certain groups of plants may not play a similar role.

It is a fact of great interest to the surgeon that in many plants there is associated with the fragrant principle a marked antiseptic or fungicidal quality; conspicuous examples of this are afforded by species of eucalyptus, yielding eucalyptol; Styrax, yielding styrone; Thymus, yielding thymol. It is interesting to note, too, that some of these most modern antiseptics were important constituents in the balsamic vulneraries of the earliest surgery.

Florists' plants and the floral fashions of the future constitute an engaging subject which we can touch only lightly. It is reasonably clear that while the old favorite species will hold their ground in the guise of improved varieties, the new introductions will come in the shape of plants with flowering branches which retain their blossoms for a somewhat long period, and especially those in which the flowers precede the leaves. In short, the next real fashion in our gardens is probably to be the flowering shrub and flowering tree, like those which are such favorites in the country from which the Western world has gladly taken the gift of the chrysanthemum.

Twice each year, of late, a reception has been held by the Emperor and Empress of Japan. The receptions are in autumn and in the spring. That in the autumn, popularly known as the Emperor's reception, has for its floral decorations the myriad forms of the national flower, the chrysanthemum; that which is given in spring, the Empress's reception, comes when the cherry blossoms are at their best. One has little idea of the wealth of beauty in masses of flowering shrubs and trees until he has seen the floral displays in the Imperial Gardens and the Temple grounds in Tokio.

To Japan and China also we are indebted for many of the choicest plants of our gardens, but the supply of species is by no means exhausted. By far the larger number of the desirable plants have already found their way into the hands of cultivators, but often under conditions which have restricted their dissemination through the flower-loving community. There are many which ought to be widely known, especially the fascinating dwarf