The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-12-16

about ten miles from Dresden. Not far
away are the royal botanic garden and
greenhouses at Pillnitz which with the
botanical gardens in Dresden IL
self. furnish such living material
as is required in making the models.
The process which the Blaschkas have
used Is, as has been said, secret one.
hereditary in the family. and Rudolph
Blaschka. as the last Of his line. has said
that II 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 the Blasch-
kas-Dr. Goodale, and, not long ago,
Miss Ware.
The first models made were. in COMPARE
son with those being turned out today,
littic crude--though doubtless. If they had
remained the only ones in existence their
irlperfections would hardly have been no.
ticed. so great was the skill shown in the
minutest details from the very beginning
But the work has steadily improved in
quality, in exaetness. and in beauty, with
every succeeding year. The first point to
strike the attention, perhaps. Is that the
models do not look like glass at ALL.
blade OF grass has the translucency not
OF glass but Of the original growing in
the fields. Tho surface Of the leaf of
water plant Is nothing like the surface
OF piece of glass. but has the wavy eff
feet of the real leaf. The very hairs or
tiny excrescences which grow on the stems
accuracy which one would have thought
beyond human skil to obtain. This Won
out in report made from a
strictly scientific point of view,
several years ago, by contributor to the
Botanical Gazette. Speaking of the mod
Ell OF the thorny aralia, the writer said:
The building up OF the complex inflor-
essence with its multitudinous minute
flowers. Is almost past belief. In this
clnStpr with that
their structure can be seen only with a
lens while many OF its buds are so min
ute as to be indistinguishable to the naked
eye. counted, of buds. blossoms and de-
veloping fruit, from $500 to 5000. And yet
every flower has its five petals. and five
alternating stamens with long filaments.
, sought to find on the under part of the
cluster some flowers perhaps less careful
ly done. as being practically out of sight,
but they were all equal In their perfection.
The immense compound leaf shows the
spines scattered frreguarly along the
stalk and midribs. The pale under sur
face. of the leaflets Is quite invisible, ow-
ing TO the position OF the leaf on the card.
Were every specimen in the collection to
be inverted. the same accurate work
would be seem"
The color is naturally the most effective
CHARACTERISTIC of the BIaschka models
its freshness its brilliancy or tenderness
Nv thV sdSt may NC, anu It's dDSOiute truth
70 the natural flower. In some instances
the color appears to be pigment laid
on the glass, but for the most part 1t Is
in the glass itself. In neither case has
1t faded In the slightest degree, so far
as the closest observation can tell, even
In models received ten or dozen years
ago,
Another striking point about the glass
flowers Is their seeming fragility and
their real toughness and durability. One
would suppose that 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
museum 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 LABEL
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 others, is
packed in straw In a wooden case. which
In. turn is bundled in more straw and
sewed finally In a covering of burlap.
The models have until recently been left
on the cardboard to which they were
originally fastened. but the cardboard,
1t has been found, 1t liable to warp, bring
ing strain on the glass which some-
times causes IL 10 DTtdk. ACCORDINGLY IL
Is proposed to transfer the whole collec-,
ton to tablets of white plaster of Paris,
and the change has already been begun.
With this Improvement the models
should be in a position to last for CEN
turtles. Even as 1t Is the breakage Is won-
derfuliy little. The stems are built up on
wire, for one thing, and, for another. the
glass, as has been said, II not nearly so
fragile as 1t looks. At the close of the
Worlds Fair In Chicago, the glass flowers
which had been sent there as a part of
at one end of the case In which they were
shown. The case was not quite level and
the plush on which the specimens rested,
constantly stirred as II was with the
heavy vibrations of nearby machinery,
had carried them gradually down the
slight incline But hardly any were seri-
ously damaged: only here and there had
one been broken. and little cement made
the collection nearly II not quite ''as good
as new
The Harvard collection-the main part
OF It. that isis intended TO represent, as
fully as shall be possible In the lifetime OF
Rudolph Blaschka. the affinities of the
principal Towering plants OF North Amer
lea In the territory particularly, of the
United States. Beginning, that Is, with
the lower forms. like the pine, the collec-
ton passes In order upward through the
orchid. the cactus. the rhododendron, the
rose Ito name only an example here and
there), 10 the most highly developed