The herald., 1897-10-24
Dangerous Bacilli Swarm in the
Dirt Around POtted
Plants.
MULTIPLY RAPIDLY
The Orchid, the Measuring Worm,
and the Plate of
Soup.

Inc IactS dlScloSed by scientific re-
search into the results of the home cul-
tivation of Towering plants are briefly
these: Growing plants and flowers in
living or sleeping room do no harm.
They are indeed a source Of positive
benefit. They purify instead of poison
the air. The trouble and possible
harm all comes from the soil in which
they grow. This is dirt, and it cannot
be too clearly understood that dirt in
all forms and places may be and US
ually is more or less menace to hui
man life. Those terrible things with
which we have become so familiar
disease producing bacteria-are often
harbored and sometimes bred in soil.
Many of them find in such rich soil as
is used for potted plants, congenial
nesting place, well suited for their
rapid multiplication and growth. An.
other important fact is that, especially
in cities, atmospheric dust is pretty
sure to carry more or less of the germs
OF such diseases as grip, consumption,
pneumonia, scarlet fever, measles,
whooping cough, diphtheria, malarial
and other fevers, and it is very un-
wise to keep in the house any dirt like
the soil in flower pots, where these
deadly germs can find a lodgment, or
as some of them do, increase in num-
Der and virulence.
In spite of every precaution there
are sometimes found on growing plants
and flowers and in flower pots num-
bers of uncanny creatures that are not
exactly mice to have in the house."
Even cut flowers may harbor bugs and
worms that have escaped the most
careful scrutiny and that sometimes
put themselves in evidence at very in
opportune times and places. A young
lady dining at a fashionable house in
this city was seated quite near a gorge
GUS pyramid of orchids and other
greenhouse rarities, so large that it al
most covered that part of the table.
Just as the dinner was fairly started.
my young friend, who was rapturously
admiring the magnificent floral display.
observed to her dismay, almost direct
ly over her head, long green measur-
! ing worm that was looping and I'M
looping itself in leisurely parade
among the flowers, when, horror of
horrors! the thing suddenly dropped it.
self by silken thread and fell square,
ly into her plate of soup. She gave an
involuntary little cry, put her handker-
chief to her face, and excused herself
on account of sudden illness. Fortu-
nately, none of the other guests no.
ticed the terrible contre temps, and to
this day the fashionable hostess is
quite in ignorance as to the cause Of
the retreat of her fair young guest.
Another instance will serve to illus
trate little different phase Of the mat
ter. A lady had prepared a table with
a splendid repast for number of ex-
pected guests. A conspicuous CENTER
piece for the table was a beautiful
jardiniere of growing plants. The ma
hogany, as we shall see, was literally
"groaning" with its load Of good
things, and the mistress Of the house
surveyed the finished arrangement and
decorations with pardonable pride. Un-
fortunately, as the event proved, there
was a weak spot in one of the table
legs, and the unusual burden proved
too heavy for it to support. While the
mistress was absent in another part Of
the house, she heard a terrific crash.
She hurried to the dining room, and
there, alas! spread out upon The floor,
were. the fragments Of her rare china
and the mingled remains of the ex-
pected feast, while above it all lay the
broken jardiniere, its contents scat
tered over everything, and conspicuous
among all the wreck and ruin, a num-
ber of big long angleworms crawling
and wriggling over the mass.
Since that time in that house, jardi-
nieres stay on the window sill, where
they more properly belong.
Copyright, 1897, by Bacheller Syndicate.