| Show FLOWERS THAT TELL TIME largest time piece ever built designed entirely in Flower sIs a floricultural Flora cultural miracle of louisana purchase exposition st lonis april 20 with its mechanical framo quite concealed beneath beautiful flow ars and van colored foliage plants the mammoth floral clock that may be seen at at louis by visitors to the exposition in 1901 will be by far the largest time piece ever constructed the floral clock is immediately 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 and the huge dial feet in diameter shows its face six inches above alie ground the dial the hands the minute hand being 60 feet long and moving 5 feet at each move and all of the frame are so covered with flowers as to quite conceal any mechanical contrivances the numerals marking the hour are 15 feet in length and are made of bright colored celcus a foliage plant that grows dense and may be pruned with the gardeners hears and kept symmetrical without fear of impairing the growth of the plant in a circle surrounding the numerals arc collections of 12 distinct plants each collection being 23 feet long and 13 feet wide lature has ordained that each of these plants should open its bloxsom at a certain hour of the day and the great floral chock shows how the laws of nature are aas exact as the mechanical laws discovered by man As the hands of the giant floral dock reach the numeral naming a certain hour the stowers in the great bed at the back of the hour so designated begin to open their buds and to exhale the perfume peculiar to the plin L still another mode of computing time will be shown by this immense recorder of times flight and this is by the prim ich e hour glass on the south side of the dial behind the numeral that denotes midday or midnight is built a tower 12 feet square and 18 feet high the tower is of wood and like most of the beautiful structures within the city of knowledge is covered with staff the architecture is graceful and ornate the top of this tower is surmounted with a mammoth hour glass made of the heaviest and clearest crystal with the receptacles for holding the sand each fix feet in length and four feet in diameter at the base the hour glass is so suspended that when the sand is spent the glass automatically reverses itself and another hour is being told concealed in the tower is the picturesque massive machinery weighing tons and controlling alie powerful steel shaft that extends under the center of alie floral dial more than fifty feet distant the powerful machinery if so delicately adjusted that it measures off each second of time with as much certainty as does the most accurate ships chronometer above the hour glass h suspended a sweet toned bell weighing pounds on which the hour is announced tho 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 the great time dieco is exposed to the liew of the public in one minute the doors are again closed and the vine covered hands continue their never ending journey profiled by a power as incapable of detention as alie power eliat causes the flower to unfold its blossom at the appointed by nature or alie force oft gravity that causes alie hour glass to deplete itself in a given space of time the entire center of the face of the mammoth floral clock a space inside alie circle created by the numerals and 70 feet in diameter is composed of alter nant herc a foliage plant which is commonly known aa josephs coat because of its many colors this plant grows low and exceedingly dense and the mottled and brightly colored foliage completely covers alie 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 altar nan there and separating it from the 15 foot floral numerals aliat mark alie hour is a narrow band of foliage plant popularly known as the dusty miller this i decies of plant a beautiful silver iny appearance grows a higher than the the band of dusty SI iller only eight inches wide separates the 70 foot circular bed of here from the 12 beds of tho same plant that surmount the space the dial allotted lo 10 the large nu merali the hands of the clock arc made of a of steel but wooden troughs filled with soil are provided and in thee troughs myrtle ivy and other creeping green plants grow luxuriantly uri antly and completely conceal from diew everything but themselves the crowning glory of the noral clock is the group of 12 distinct dia plants that begin unfolding their petals with alie morning glory at the peep day and as each hour if a new plant begins displaying its charms while tho bloom of the plant of the hour before falls and dies to be reincarnated 24 hours later the circle surrounding the numerals is feet in circumference and tho sections of hour flowers each occupy a space 25 beet long and 18 feet deep the divided by narrow strips of foliage plants and each section thus delaini Tel aini Us individuality surrounding 12 groups of flowers that open their blossoms on the approach of the hour hand of the beautiful floral time register and completing the picture is a of grass six feet wide and as smooth as velvet tho visitor may walk around the clock on a spacious but a clinin encircles foot sward and tho dreadful sign keap the grass ia not in evidence the floral clock will b as attractive an at highl as it is in day among the foliage of the hour numerals arc 1000 incandescent electric lamps not visible during the day but after nightfall when the electric current ii turned on the myriads of lamps illuminate the entire exhibit and make it as liblit as day and more beautiful the floral clock is the exhibit of the johnson service company of milwaukee |
