Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-14
FLOWERS TELL TIME.
Largest Timepiece Ever Built, Design
 ed Entirely in Flowers


 With its mechanical frame quite con- cealed beneath beautiful flowers and vari-colored foliage plants, the mann moth floral clock that may be seen at St Louis by visitors to the Louisiana Purchase exposition in 1904 will be by far the largest timepiece ever con structed.
 The floral clock is immediately north of the agricultural building, and to the visitor appears to be made entirely from contributions from the floral world. The mechanism of the clock Is buried an the huge dial, 100 feet in diameter. shows it's face six inches above the ground. The dial, the hands, the minute hand being 30 feet long and moving five feet at each move, and all of the frame is so covered with flowers as to quite conceal any, mechanical contriyances. \&
 The numerals marking the hour are 10 feet in length and are made of bright colored coleus, foliage plant that grows dense and may be pruned with the gardeners shears and kept symmetrical without fear of impairing the growth of the plant.
 In circle surrounding the numerals are collections of 12 distinct plants, each collection being % feet long and 12 feet wide. Nature has ordained that each of these plants should open it's blossoms at a certain hour of the day, and the great floral clock shows how the laws of nature are as exact as the mechanical laws discovered by man. AS the hands of the giant floral clock reach the numeral naming certain hour the flowers in the great bed at the back of the hour so designated be- gin to open their buds and to exhale the perfume peculiar to the plant
 Still another mode of computing the time will be shown by this immense re- corder of times flight, and this Is by the primitive hour glass. On the south side of the dial behind the nu- neral that denotes midday or midnight, is built a, tower, 12 feet square and IS feet high. The tower is of wood, and like most of the beautiful structures within the City of Knowledge is cov- cred with staff. The architecture is graceful and ornate. The top of this tower Is surmounted with mammoth hour glass, made of the heaviest and clearest crystal, with the receptacles for holding the sand, each six feet in length and four feet in diameter, st the base. The hour glass is so sus- pended that when the sand is spent the glass automatically reverses itself and another hour is being told off.
 Concealed in the tower is the pic turesque, massive machinery, weighing tons and controlling the powerful steel shaft that ertends under the center of the floral dial more than 30 feet dis tant. She powerful machinery is so delicately adjusted that it measures each s4cond of time with as much cer- tainty as does the most accurate ships chronometer.
 Above the hour glass is, suspended q sweet toned bell. weighing 5000 pounds, on which the hour is announc- ed. The sound waves thus created penetrate to the extreme ends of the exposition grounds.
 With the first sound of the bell the massive and beautifully decorated doors to the tower swing open. and the machinery that propels the great time- piece is exposed to the view of the pub lie. In one minute the doors are again closed, and the vine-covered hands continue their never ending Journey, propelled by power as incapable of detention as the power that causes the flower to unfold it's blossom at the hour appointed by nature, or the force of gravity that causes the hour glass to deplete itself in given space of time.
 The entire center of the face of the mammoth floral clock. space inside the circle created by the numerals. and paA% trpI If,KN &4. x~& nT ternanthere, foliage plant which is commonly known as "Joseph's Coat" because of it's many colors. This plant grows low and exceedingly dense and the mottled and brightly colored foli- age completely covers the ground, but will never grow tall enough to be touched by the hands as they pursue their never ending course.
 Encircling this immense bed of al- ternanthere, and separating it from the 15-foot floral numerals that mark the hour is narrow band of centau- req, another foliage plant popularly known as the Dusty Miller" This species of plant, a beautiful silver in appearance, grows trifie higher than the alternanthere. The band of Dusty Miller," only eight inches wide, separates the T0-foot circular bed of alternanthere from the 12 beds of the same plant that surround the space on the dial allotted to the large numerals,
 The hands of the clock are made of frame work of steel but wooden troughs filled with soil are provided, and in these troughs myrtle, ivy and other creeping green plants grow lux uriantly and completely conceal from view everything but themselves.
 The crowning glory of the floral clock is the group of 12 distinct plants that begin unfolding their petals with the morning glory at the peep O day, and as each hour is registered a new plant begins displaying its charms, while tue bloom of the plant of the hour before falls and dies. to be rei@l- carnated 24 hours later. The circle surrounding the numerals is 300 feet in circumference and the sections of hour overs each occupy a space 25 feet long and IS feet deep. The sections are di- vided by narrow strips of foliage plants and each section thus retains its indi- vii i+x