The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-02
A FLORAL CLOCK.
ONE FOR MIR. ROCKEFELLER' HUD-
son RIVER GROUNDS.


Poor.
New York April S0.-An Ohio architect
has completed designs for a floral clock to
be set out upon the grounds of the Hudson
river residence of John D. Rockefeller.
who owns the largest estate along that
rhine of America"
The clock is. from an ordinary stand
point. the most marvellous product of
floral art ever seen. From a botanist's
view it is the proper Acknowledgement of
the flora of the country applied to another
piece of natures work, the rising and set
ting of the sun.
Flowers were in the days of Pliny the
| timepieces of the poor The white lily,
of which we have records, in that day
opened at 7 o'clock in the morning and
closed a in the afternoon. 1t still keeps
its regular time of opening and shutting,
and in the rural districts is known as the
day lily" the delight of the farmers
wife
There are sixty-seven flowers that have
their time for blooming. This time varies
a little, according to latitude. But except
in either an extremely hot or a piercing
cold region this does not change For
| instance. the yellow goats beard of the
meadows closes PROMPTLY at u noon in
France as well as here. In Scotland the
goats beard is used for dismissing school
in very poor districts, where neither
teacher or scholars have watch, and
where the township is too poor to furnish
any other tmepiece. In England the 4
o'clock is as well known in poetry as it
is here, and it preserves its namesake hour
| as accurately.
Mrs. John d. Rockefeller is what is
| known as an inveterate botanist. She
| cultivates flowers in season and out of
season. She is an authority upon plants
| and could if She would, write very good
botany for common use. 1t is said she
| taught botany before she married the
| young bookkeeper who can now afford to
| hire botanists to teach his wife.
| In the clock that has been designed for
| the Rockefeller estate by the Ohio land
| scape gardener, the hands" point to half
! the common yellow dandelions. These flow
ers have trick of opening at precisely 80
| in the morning, and of closing at $50 at
night. They are light-lovng flowers, and
/ do not care whether the sun shines or not
! They open with the light and close when
curate of all timepieces and in typical
| floral clock the hands should be of this
| flower, for they show exactly when day be-
| gins for the floral world.
The o'clock hand is made of the COM
mon hawkweed, which closes promptly at
/ in the afternoon. 1t opens at i'm the
morning, but when the sun gets around to
| 2 1T closes up at the hour to a second.
In making floral clock there is some
/ doubt attached to the laying of it out
| The Baroness Burdett-Coutts had one that
was planned to show the hours the flow
ers closed. If you looked at the l o'clock
| place, you would see a little white flower
with a fluffy stalk. This was the snow
thistle of the meadow. AT l o. clock it could
be relied upon to double up its snowy pet
| ais, and, folding its fun, shrink back into
little hard stalks of green.
| At O'Clock on the Burdett-Coutts clock
| the hawkWeed closed. At the morning
glories began to shrivel, twining around
! their sticks planted al the o'clock place,
| and at 4 o'clock the little four-o'clocks got
! in their self-app&nted task of closing up.
1t was more difficult when it came to the
| midnight flowers, but there are night-clos-
| ing and mountaineering plants of the
| tropical varieties that were utilized.
! 1t is generally found that the dollhouse,
or cultivated varieties of plants, do not
| open and close with any regularity but
/ those of the meadows and forests can be
/ depended upon. Like the birds, they pre-
! serve their own time of awakening
A homely little plant, the SOW thistle, is
| the most accurate in the II o'clock hour
| This plant of the pasture opens regularly
| at and begins to close at II o'clock, slow
! ly completing the work by the time the
| u O'Clock whistles are sounding.
The architect who has prepared the flo
raj clock for the Rockefeller estate has re-
/ sorted to these wild flowers in a cultivated
| state. BY taking the thistles, the weeds, -
| the goat-beards and other common wild
| flowers into lighthouses and caring for
| them much larger variety can be grown
more brilliant in color and more fragrant
| And this without sacrificing the time-keep-
| ing qualities. There are also some close
relatives of these flowers that are in a
state of cultivation and still keep opening
| and closing The day lily has cousins of
the lily family that do this.
The water lily is another accurate open
er and closer. II opens when the sun rises
and closes when IL sets. BY consulting an
almanac for the hours of sunrise and sun
set you learn exactly the habits of the wa
ter lily. 1t never fails. At the time the sun
sinks behind the horizon Il is a hard green
tuber with all its scent folded inside.
Another way of arranging floral clock Is
to place its plants so that the hours of
opening are shown instead of the hours of
closing.
A very necessary addition to the floral
clock is a key, which is a book with a fio-
raj guide written inside. As the
hands cannot move upon this strange flo
raj clock little explanation is necessary
or you do not understand 1t. small
watch, waterproof, like bicycle watch.
is placed nearby.
The handsomest floral clock ever seen
was placed upon the grounds of the Duke
Of Westminster several years ago. A sun
dial formed the center OF the clock Upon
the dial there was laid a little book with
pages of oilcloth stamped in waterproof
ink A watch also lay alongside With this
key. and the sun-dial and watch for
guide. the visitor TO the floral clock could
amuse himself indefinitely, reading the
hours and verifying the results as the
flowers told the time. Harry Germaine.
ANIMALS THAT ARE OUTLAwED.