The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-10
FLOWERS MADE " CLASS
A COLLECTION OF WONDERFUL
CREATIONS OF TWO ORES
DEN ARTISTS
MEMORIAL GIFT TO HARVARD
Secret Process Which Has Enriched
the Botanical Museum-AlmOst In
credible Scientific Accuracy
of the Specimens.
CAMBRIDGE. Ma IS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Dec. S.-(SpeciaI)
Every sightseer at Harvard is sure,
sooner or later, after making the rounds
of the yard" and Memorial hall, the
gymnasium and the library, to ask at
last where he can see the ''glass flow
ers;" and, finding them to Hnger over
the cases in the university museum
which contain them with more interest,
often, than he has shown for anything
else that he has seen in Cambridge. The
collection, apparently, is known from
one end of the country to the other, bet
ter known, perhaps, than any scientific
collection, whether of flowers or of other
objects, in the United States. 1t ap
peals to the common human love of
flowers for its beauty as well as to the
professional botanist for its accurate re-
production of all the delicacies and in
tricacies of flower formation, and to CIV
erybody for the marvellous ingenuity
and patience that have gone to the max
ing of the hundreds of specimens which
it now comprises.
The Ware collection Of Blaschka glass
models of flowers it is called, made by
a secret process by Leopold Blaschka
and his son Rudolph, in Germany, and
secured to the university by the gener-
osity of Mrs. Elizabeth c.. Ware and
Miss Mary L. Ware, of Boston, who
have established it as a memorial of the
late Dr. Charles E. Ware, of the Har-
ward class of 1884 The elder Blaschka
died in 1895, leaving his son to continue
the work alone While the two were
working together the number OF models
received at Harvard in a year sometimes
amounted to over 100, including the
branch with it's flower, and certain spe-
cial details on a magnlhed scale; OUT
for the last two or three years the aver
age number of models received mas
been in the neighborhood of twenty or
TWENTY-FIVE The total number of plants
now shown in the cases at the museum
is 57S besides 2, 424 illustrative details.
The idea of such a collection origi-
mated with Dr. George L. Goodale, who
is at the head of the Botanical museum,
and the director, also, of the Harvard
Botanic Garden. For some years the
BIaschkas, then established in Dresden,
had been making, for museums all over
the world, particularly the marine IN
vertebrates-polyps and the hke-as
could hardly be represented in collec-
lions unless copied in some such durable
substance. Some of these models had
been procured by Harvard and may sun
he seen in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology. Looking at these suggested
70 DR.. Goodale that the same process
might De used to make models from the
living plant, which should be permanent
and free from decay, and in which the
color and bloom of the original, 1mpossl-
BILE to preserve in pressed or alconollc
specimens of plants, should be combined
with complete scientific accuracy.
Accordingly. in 1885, DIR. GOodale visited
tho Rlaschkas in Dresden and laid his
nlan before them. Leopold Blaschka,
however. had the German infexibIity Of
mind which is so often referred to as
ohstinacv and his first answer was a
DOWNRIGHT refusal. But DE-. Goodale had
seen in the house a wreath of flowers in
glass which the Rlaschkas had made
twenty wears before for the funeral Of
a relative, and he was not to be shaken
in his purpose. Tact, persistence, and
the offer of terms which doubtless SEEM
ed princely to the plain-living German
artists finally prevailed. The Blaschkas
made their first shipment to DR.. Goodale
in the year following, and in 1880 ten
wears contract, in which they agreed TO
give their time exclusively to the Botan-
zeal museum, abandoning their previous
zooloeicaI work was entered into. This
wear the contract has been renewed for
an indefinite period and Rudolph Blasch-
ka's name is now regularly carried on
the college lists as ''artist-naturalist' to
the botanical department.
With thu first money received from
the university the Blaschkas bought a
comfortable house in Hosterwitz, town
about ten miles from Dresden. Not far
away are the royal botanic garden and
greenhouses at Pillnitz, which, with the
botanical gardens in Dresden itself,
furnish such living material as is re-
quired in making the models The pro-
cess which the Blaschkas have used is,
as has been said, secret one, hereditary