The Carlisle independent., 1920-12-16
REQ BLOSSOMS ARE FAVORED American and Liberty Roses, Carna-, tions and lmmorteiies Among Pop
 uIar Christmas Flowers.

GXN3 mas IQ0rning follows it's gen INVHS tie prophecy. the city florists
 will be happy. That will mean that the thousands of boxes of Christmas flowers which must be de- out with only the ordinary packing. But should there be freezing weather. every flower must be packed in cotton. which doubles the labor and the time necessary. Even with the mild Christ mas, which is the florists delight, the force in the big retail flower stores works all night the night before Christ mas. From midnight until o'clock in the morning all hands are busy packing the boxes which in a few hours are to convey Christmas remem- brances. At o'clock the delivery wagons start. and before noon all the fragile blooms have reached the fem mine hands for which they were pur- chased. Probably 10000 such boxes are delivered every Christmas morn ing in New York. One dealer in fashionable residence district has sent out between 300 and 400 every Christ mas morning for many years.
 The mixed box" ranges from $1O to $50 in price. It is very modest little box for the first price-just half a dozen roses. dozen carnations, bit of Christmas green" In the $50 box there will be probably half dozen American Beauties, half a dozen long-stemmed liberty roses of the rich, velvety. deep crimson vari- ety; some violets, some valley" some mignonette to sweeten the whole box; perhaps some sweet peas and hya- cinths, bit of heliotrope and alwaye some holly and red satin ribbon to tie the whole.
 These expensive boxes are simply pretty trifles. sent to the rich, by those who are not sufficiently indebted or on sufficiently intimate terms to send more costly or substantial gifts. The very evanescence of the flowers makes them superlatively luxurious. Fifty dollars for flowers that fade in day makes the attention more deli cate than four or five times that amount put into some more durable trifle.
 Red Is pre-eminently the Christmas color, and red carnations and red roses are the favorite purchases. The red immortelles. also. go in great punches for Christmas decorations In houses of both high and low degree. These immorteiles are real flowers, ,> though some people have a notion they are made of paper. The natural color Is yellow, and they grow in the south of France, where great fields of them may be seen dried and dyed for the mar ket. It is a great industry there. Eu- ropeans use them largely to the exclu- sion of fresh flowers for all occasions They are dyed in all cOlors for the Ea- ropean market, and thousands upon thousands of boxes of the red ones are imported to New York every year for the Christmas trade. They cannot be successfully grown in America. owing to climatic differences. A few have been produced in Texas but the for ists say they are not right"
 .-sI's',s ss, %&.s%tes
 Trees and Fires.
 It is doubtful whether any single agency has caused more fires than Christmas trees. These are covered with infiammable ornaments and kept until the branches are n dry as tim der. The practice of decorating with candles and lighting these in order to beautify the tree is the main source of danger. There is something so pleasing and satisfactory about Christi mas trees that no one feels like giv- ing them up. or opposing their use, but they are a source of loss and dan ger. Something should be done to eliminate the danger. even though 1t should reduce the number of trees. Until regulations from the outside in- terfere with the practice, it will he well for every person who indulges in the luxury to have garden hose ready for immediate use in case the tree catches fire. Those who have no means for extinguishing a fire should not have tree-From the Kansas City Journal.