The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-07
COL0RING FLOWERS.
HOW TO GIVE ARTIFICIAL COlORs
TO CUT BLOSSOMS.
An Experimenting Florist Gives Away
Valuable and Interesting Secrets of the
Flower Observation-Disclosures So Simple
That Anybody May Try Them.

| VALUABLE ana interesting secrets OF the
Flower Business-Methods So Simple
That Anybody May Try Them.
The excitement about blue carnations
led my neighbor, Mr.. W. Darlington, and
myself to endeavor to solve the mystery by
initiating it, and we soon discovered that.
although flowers could not be tinted by
inmersing chem in dye solutions, they
could readily be colored by placing their
stalks in aniline solutions.
| Aniline scarlet dissolved in water to
about the transparency of claret has a
very rapid action on flowers, coloring them
pink and scarlet. Indigo carmine produces
beautiful blue tints. The two combined
dye various shades of purple. with curious
moCtled effects, some parts of the flowers
becoming pink and other parts blue and
| purple.
| Greens are produced by using the blue
| dye with yellow. We also tried indigo and
cochineal, with partial success. Lily Of
the valley flowers became beautifully
tinged with pink or blue in six hours
! Narcissi are changed from pure white to
! deep scarlet in twelve hours, and delicate
shades of pink are impaired TO them in q
very short time. Yellow daffodils are
beautifully striped with dark scarlet in
twelve hours; the edges of the corona also
become deeply tinged and the veinings of
| the perianth become very strongly marked
| The interesting question of how this change
! is brought about soon attracted my atten-
| ton and proved extremely interesting.
| The celebration is mainly confined to the
| vessels.
There is a system of veins in plants, the
vein tubes being clearly seen under the
microscope passing through the leaves,
| petals and other parts of the flower. In
these tubes the motion Of the colored
water can been seen, and it became evident
! that it was by these that the color is con-
| veyed and left in every portion of the plants.
| In the case of cut flowers the action is very
rapid, the water tubes beginning at once
to absorb the fluid, which was passed along
by either capillary attraction, contraction,
| or possibly by some more active life force
| acting within the veins. My experiments
in proof of this were made at first entirely
| with cut flowers. l afterward tried the
| experiment by taking a Roman hyacinth
very carefully out of the soil and placing
the roots in aniline water. In twelve hours
the petals began to color and the flowers
gradually became pink tinted throughout.
This experiment was repeated on many
narcissi and other bulbs.
1t cannot, however, be said that the root
fibers were unbroken; probably they were
SO, as l have failed to color any flower by
merely watering the soil with colored
water. The filtering appendages to tbs
roots evidently prevent the absorption of
much of the color, as the petals of the
flowers do not become either SO quickly or
so deeply tinted when the plant has its
roots as with cut flowers. 1t was, however.
clearly seen that the vein tubes proceede6
from the roots, thus completing the water
system of tubes from root to flower.
The veins when colored are beautifully
seen under the microscope as clear tubes
running in parallel lines, the intersnaces
filed by cellular matter. The tubes gradu-
ally branch out as they proceed, and as they
approach the margins they are often finely
branched When the colored water reaches
the margins of the petals they thus become
deeply tinctured, especially in the narcissi,
illustrating the cause whereby the daffodil
SO frequently obtains the deeper color at
the edge Of the corona. 1t is the same with
the leucojum and the snowdrop.
Very singular results were obtained IN
the variegated leaves Of the aucuba and
ivy-plants which at the winter season,
one would suppose, had the leaves quite
dormant. Single leaves, with their stalks
placed in aniline dye water, began to color
in about three hours, and in twelve hours
had their margins deeply colored. They
were thus shown to have the absorptive
power quite apart from the stem.
Another remarkable instance was seen in
Lapageria alba, which has a very thin,
why stalk and a large waxy flower With
the stalk placed in dye water the whole
flower became beautifully veined with
pink in three or four hours-a singular
fact, when one considers the minuteness Of
the tubes through which the liquid has to
be drawn. 1t is difficult to believe that
this can be accomplished by capillary at
traction only.
White tulips furnish excellent illustra-
tons of artificial coloring, as they can be
readily tinted either pink, blue, green or
purple in few hours. The vein tubes
which are thus displayed in the petals
agree with the strongly marked features
known as the "fiamed" or 'feathered" vari-
cites of the florist. 1t is generally known
that all tulips raised from seed are self
colOred when they first bloom; they are
then called breeder tulips" and the en-
thusiastic amateur florist grows on his
breeders" for s x or seven years, until they
'break, -" when they become either ''famed"
or ''feathered" varieties. Now florist may
ascertain in six hours whether his breeder
tulip will become feathered or famed
sort, and whether it will be worth growing
on for the breaking time, because the vein
ing of the petal is shown by the color. and
it is that which makes the feature when
the tulip is fully matured. Blue tulips
have always been desired, and they can
thus be artifcially produced for florist pur-
poses.
Daffodils and narcissi generally can be
greatly varied in color, and especially by
showing their exquisite veining when thus
treated. The tube and corona take darker
and richer tone of color than the perianth,
thus agreeing with the fact that all daifo-
dis are more or less bicoior. The Christ
mas rose is also an interesting flower when
artifcially colored. Straight tubes cross
the petals from base to point, with nunler-
Gus cross tubes, and the main ones branch
out Angularly, thus dividing the Stow
white petals into network Of red lines.
The interzpaces are filed with oval cell
ules, and as the tubes are permeable the
cellular spaces become suffused with del
icate shade OF pink.
Snowdrops and leucojums are also very
interesting when thus treated. Their pet
ais are veiHed with about eight tubes at
the base, which pass across the petal 20 its
point in nearly parallel lines, strongly and
clearly marked. These are branched near
the tip Of the petal in fanlike form, pro
ducing the rich pink margins to the flower
The double white camelLa is another very
pretty illustration. as it easily assumes a