The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-10
HS F !: -: !: 81; g.:
&; e.. S e.: LqlpeT. FDCDS Skinner,
1So-1S4 E. 4th St.

in the family, and Rudolph Blaschka, as
the last of his line, has said that it
should die with him. Whether this will
be the case or not, the laboratories IN
the Hosterwitz house have been visited
by only two persons besides tie Blascl.-
has-Dr, Goodale, and not long ago, Miss
Ware.
The first models made were. in COM
parison with those being turned out to-
day, a little crude-though doubtless if
they had remained the only ones in ex-
istence their imperfections would hardly
have been noticed, so great was the
skill shown in the minutest details from
the very beginning. But the work has
steadily improved in quality, in exact
ness, and in beauty, with every succeed
ing year. The first point to strike the
attention, perhaps, is that the models do
not look like glass at ALL A blade OF
grass has the tIansucency not of glass
but of the original growing in the fields
The surface of the leaf of a water plant
is nothing like the surface of a piece OF
glass, but has the waXy, effect of the real
leaf. The very hairs or tiny excrescences
which grow OIL the stems of certain
plants, are reproduced with on accuracy
which one would have thought beyond
human skill to obtain. This wonderful
accuracy is we'll brought in a report mace
from a strictly scientific point of view,
HoON ~ e1 OtAI el5O3 ny q " Tue
Botanical Gazette. Speaking of tile
model of the thorny araia, the writer
said
''The building up of the complex in
forescence, with it's multtudinous M
mute flowers, is almost past balief. In
this cluster, with it's flowers so small
that their structure can be seen only
with a lens, while many of it's buds are
so minute as to be indistingIi shabje TO
the naked eye, 1 counted Of buds, bios
SONS and developing fruit from 2,5C0 to
5000. And yet every flower has it's five
petals and five alternating stamens with
long filaments. I sought to ind on the
under part of the cIusta: some flowers
perhaps less carelessly done, as being
practically out Of sight, but they were
all equal in their perfection. The i'm
mense compound leaf shows the spines
scattered irregularly along the stalk and
midribs. The pale Tslder surface of the
leaflets is quite invisible, owing to the
position of the leaf on the card Were
every specimen in the collection to be III
verted, the same accurate work would be
seen"
The color is naturally the most effect
i've characteristic of the Blascnl:l modes
its freshness, it's brilliancy or tender
ness, as the case may be, and its abso-
lutte truth to the natural flower. In some
instances the color appears to be pig
ment laid on the glass, but Tor the most
part it is in the glass itself. In neither
case has it faded in the slightest degree,
so far as the closest observation can
tell, even in models received ten or a
dozen years ago.
Another striking point about the glass
flowers is their seeming fragittty and
their real toughness and durability. Ohe
would suppose that at least half Of them
would be broken in the transit from Ger
many to this country, but as matter
of fact, practically all arrive at the mu-
scum as perfect as when they left the
Blaschka studio. The greatest care. Of
course is taken to pack them securely
for the voyage. Each specimen, with its
illustrative details, is wired to a piece
of heavy white cardboard, properly Iaoel-
ed. This piece of cardboard is glued to
the bottom of a heavy pasteboard box,
which is packed closely with the finest
tissue paper. This box, with otners, is
packed in straw in a wooden case, which
in turn is bundled in more straw anu
The models have until recently boon left
on the cardboard to which they were
originally fastened, but the cardbo I'D.
it has been found, is liable to warp,
bringing a strain on the glass, which
sometimes causes it to break Accord
ingly it is proposed to transfer the whole
collection to tablets of white plaster of
Paris, and the change has already been
begun With this improvement the mod
els should be in a position to last for
centuries. Even as it is, the breaKage
is wonderfully little. The stems are