Part 174

In addition to what has been already stated in the article on BREAD, it may be useful to mention that a pound of the best flour, from thoroughly dried wheat, will take 10 fl. oz. of water to form it into ordinary dough, or 9 fl. oz. to form it into bread dough. Under the old parliamentary acts, a sack of flour (280 lbs.) was presumed to produce 80 loaves (quartern or quarter-peck), the weight of which, within 48 hours after being baked, was to be 4 lbs. 5-1/2 oz. each. At the present time fully 92 loaves, weighing 4 lbs. each, are produced by the London bakers from one sack of flour, when honest weight is given; but as the latter is rarely the case, and the bread is frequently 'slack' or 'under-baked,' and thus contains more water than good bread ought to do, a much larger product is commonly obtained. The dough loses about 1/7th of its weight in baking, if in batches; but fully 1/6th, if baked in small loaves, and placed in the oven separately. The best bread contains about 1/4-1/6th of its weight of added water; and common bread, often much more than 1/4th. The proportion of water in the London bread has greatly increased during the last few years, owing to the introduction of the fraudulent plan of making the dough with rice jelly or moss jelly. This is the reason why the bread of some bakers suffers such a loss of weight in a few hours after being taken from the oven. A 4 lbs. loaf of bread purchased from a baker at Lambeth, after remaining on the sideboard of a sitting-room for 24 hours, was found to have lost no less than 6-1/2 oz. by evaporation, and in two days longer its interior cells were covered with green mould, and the whole was unfit for food. The bakers, aware of these facts, are particularly careful not to bake more bread than they can dispose of whilst 'new,' and are in the habit of refusing to weigh their bread before selling it, when it is more than 10 or 12 hours old, although they are liable to be 'fined' for such a refusal. See BREAD, CAKES, FARINA, &c., also _below_.

=Flour, Baked.= _Syn._ FARINA TOSTA, F. TRITICI TOSTA, L. _Prep._ From wheat flour, carefully baked in a 'slack' oven, until it acquires a pale-buff hue. Astringent; used to make food for infants troubled with diarrh[oe]a. See FARINA.

=Flour, Barley (Prepared).= _Syn._ FARINA HORDEI PREPARATA, L. _Prep._ (Ph. Bor.) From barley flour, compressed into a tin cylinder until the vessel is 2-3rds full, which is then suspended at the upper part of a still 2-3rds filled with water, and after the 'head' is fitted on, the water is kept boiling for 30 hours (2 days of 15 hours each). Lastly, the upper layer being removed, the rest is reduced to powder, and kept in a dry place.

=Flour, Boiled.= _Syn._ TRITICINA, FARINA PREPARATA, L. _Prep._ From fine flour, tied up in a linen cloth as tight as possible, and after it has been frequently dipped into cold water, the outside of the cloth is dredged over with flour, until a crust is formed round it, to prevent the water soaking into it whilst boiling; it is then boiled for a long time, and when cold, it is divided into small oblong pieces. For use, it is reduced to powder, either by grinding or grating it, and is then prepared like arrow-root. It forms a good diet for children, in diarrh[oe]a, &c.; and as it may be easily prepared at home, it has the advantage of being free from adulteration.

=Flour, Jones's Patent.= _Prep._ From kiln-dried flour, 1 cwt.; tartaric acid, 10-1/2 oz.; mix thoroughly; after 2 or 3 days, add, of bicarbonate of soda, 12 oz.; lump sugar, 1/2 lb.; common salt, 1-1/2 lb.; mix, and pass the compound through the 'dressing-machine.' It is necessary that the whole of the ingredients should be perfectly dry, and separately reduced to fine powder before adding them to the flour. By simply mixing it with cold water, and at once baking it, it produces light, porous bread.

_Obs._ We have already had occasion to pay a passing tribute to the excellence and usefulness of Jones's Patent Flour.[314] It is, indeed, invaluable to every household, as furnishing the means of producing, with great economy, and extemporaneously, not merely cakes, puddings, pastry, and fancy bread, but the 'staff of life' itself, household bread, of a purity, flavour, and lightness, seldom, if ever, met with in that purchased of the bakers.

=Flour, Sewell's Patent.= _a._ (No. 1.) Flour, 1 sack (280 lbs.); hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1·14), 45 oz.; mix, by adding the acid in a 'spray,'--_b._ (No. 2.) To the last, add (expertly) bicarbonate of soda, 39 oz.; mix thoroughly, and pass the whole through a sieve or 'dressing machine.'

_Obs._ This flour is used as the last, to which, however, it is inferior in quality. No. 1 will keep 5 weeks. No. 2 will keep a month. Jones's flour will keep good in a dry place for years. If No. 1 is alone employed for the dough, to each pound of the flour, 65 gr. of bicarbonate of soda, with salt q. s., must be added. The patentee claims for his invention the merit of the soda and acid being converted into culinary salt in the process of making up the flour and baking the dough.[314]

[Footnote 314: See UNFERMENTED BREAD.]

=FLOWER DEW= (F. J. Weber, successor of Rau, Bamberg). A flat bottle with the name of Rau moulded on it; its gross weight is more than 80 grammes, but it contains scarcely 22 grammes of a nearly colourless but slightly yellow fluid, consisting of a pleasant aromatic solution of oils of bergamot, lemon, orange flowers, and rose in strong spirit.

=FLOWERS.= _Syn._ FLORES, L. These beautiful and fragrant ornaments of our gardens and our dwellings are too highly esteemed by all classes of the community to require anything in favour of their cultivation to be said here. Our remarks will, therefore, chiefly refer to their collection, improvement, and preservation.

'Full' or 'double flowers,' or those in which the internal organs become petals, are so much more beautiful than the 'single flowers' of the corresponding species and varieties, that their production, with tolerable ease and certainty, has long been a desideratum with both the professional and amateur florist. Various plans have been proposed having this object in view, among which are the following:--1. The use of the best seed only, but not before it is at least 3 or 4 years old. 2. The selection of the outer row of seed only, and its careful preservation intact for at least 2 seasons before sowing it. We are assured that this method is particularly successful with dahlias. 3. The removal of the plants to a shady situation as soon as the flower-buds begin to develop themselves, and stinting them with water and nourishment for a few weeks. In this method a few only of the buds are permitted to mature; the rest being snipped off with a pair of scissors as early as possible. 4. The use of small pots and a scanty supply of water until the flowers are partly developed, when water is supplied in abundance, with or without the addition of a little liquid manure.

To hasten the blooming of flowers, it is a common practice with some gardeners to grow them in as small pots as is consistent with their healthy existence, and carefully to avoid transplanting them to larger pots, for several weeks before their usual time of blossoming. A plant on the point of flowering, if transferred to a larger pot and a richer soil, immediately commences making roots and leaves, whilst the embryo flowers either wholly decay, or their development is checked until the usual season of their production has passed over.

The following liquid has been used with great advantage to promote the vigorous growth and the early flowering of plants:--Sulphate or nitrate of ammonia, 4 oz.; nitrate of potassa, 2 oz.; sugar, 1 oz.; hot water, 1 pint; dissolve and keep it in a well-corked bottle. For use, put 8 or 10 drops of this liquid into the water of a hyacinth glass or jar, for bulbous-rooted plants, changing the water every 10 or 12 days. For flowering plants in pots, a few drops must be added to the water employed for them. The preference should be given to rain water for this purpose. The fluid sold under the name of liquid guano may be used in the same manner.

Flowers may be preserved in a fresh state for a considerable time, by keeping them in a moist atmosphere. When growing on the parent stem, the large amount of evaporation from the surface of their leaves is compensated for by an equivalent proportion of moisture supplied by the roots; but when they are plucked, the evaporation from the surface continues, while the supply of moisture is cut off. To supply, in part, this loss of moisture by evaporation, has arisen the almost universal practice of placing flowers in water; but their mutilated stems possess a far inferior power of sucking up fluids to that of the roots, and thus their decay is only deferred for a time. To preserve them more effectually, or at least to render their existence less ephemeral, we may surround them with a moist atmosphere, by which the loss of water from the surface of their leaves will be reduced to the smallest possible amount. "It is now eighteen years ago since we first saw, in the drawing-room of a gentleman, in the hot dry weather of the dog-days, flowers preserved day after day in all their freshness by the following simple contrivance--A flat dish of porcelain had water poured into it. In the water a vase of flowers was set; over the whole a bell-glass was placed, with its rim in the water. This was a 'Ward's case' in principle, although different in its construction. The air that surrounded the flowers being confined beneath the bell-glass, was kept constantly moist with the water that rose into it in the form of vapour. As fast as the water was condensed it ran down the sides of the bell glass back into the dish; and if means had been taken to inclose the water on the outside of the bell-glass, so as to prevent its evaporating into the air of the sitting-room, the atmosphere around the flowers would have remained continually damp. We recommend those who love to see plenty of fresh flowers in their sitting-rooms in dry weather to adopt this method. The experiment can be tried by inverting a tumbler over a rose-bud in a saucer of water." ('Gardener's Chron.')

Another method by which some flowers may be preserved for many months is to carefully dip them, as soon as gathered, in perfectly limpid gum water, and after allowing them to drain for 2 or 3 minutes, to set them upright, or arrange them in the usual manner in an empty vase. The gum gradually forms a transparent coating on the surface of the petals and stems, and preserves their figure and colour long after they have become dry and crisp.

Yet another method (given in the 'Pharmaceutical Journal') is as follows:--"A vessel with a movable cover is provided, and having removed the cover from it, a piece of metallic gauze of moderate fineness is fixed over it, and the cover replaced. A quantity of sand is then taken sufficient to fill the vessel, and passed through a sieve into an iron pot, where it is heated with the addition of a small quantity of stearin, carefully stirred so as to thoroughly mix the ingredients.

"The quantity of stearin to be added is at the rate of half a part to 100 parts of sand. Care must be taken not to add too much, as it would sink to the bottom and injure the flowers. The vessel with its cover on and the gauze beneath it is then turned upside down, and the bottom being removed, the flowers to be operated upon are carefully placed on the gauze and the sand gently poured in, so as to cover the flowers entirely, the leaves being thus prevented from touching each other. The vessel is then put in a hot place, such, for instance, as the top of a baker's oven, where it is left for 48 hours. The flowers thus become dried, and they retain their natural colours. The vessel still remaining bottom upwards, the lid is taken off, and the sand runs away through the gauze, leaving the flowers uninjured.

Faded flowers may be generally more or less restored by immersing them half-way up their stems in very hot water, and allowing them to remain in it until it cools, or they have recovered. The coddled portion of the stems must then be cut off, and the flowers placed in clean cold water. In this way a great number of faded flowers may be restored, but there are some of the more fugacious kinds on which it proves useless.

Flowers may be produced in winter by taking up the plants, trees, or shrubs in the spring, at the time when they are about to bud, with some of their own soil carefully preserved around the roots, and placing them upright in a cellar till Michaelmas; when, with the addition of fresh earth, they are to be put into proper tubs or vessels, and placed in a stove or hot-house, when they must be treated in the usual manner. By this method, in the month of February, fruits or roses will appear. Flowers sown in pots about Michaelmas may thus be made to bloom at Christmas.

The apparently instantaneous flowering of plants, exhibited a few years ago by M. Herbert to an astonished audience, was, we believe, effected by the heat generated by fragments of quicklime concealed in the mould close to, but not in immediate contact with, the roots. The plants selected by M. Herbert--a group of geraniums and a rose tree--were planted in two rather deep boxes of garden mould, and were covered with glass shades. The operator commenced by pouring over the roots, from a small watering-pot, a liquid which, uniting to the ingredients already in the earth, caused a great heat, as was shown by an intense steam or vapour, which was evolved within the shades, and allowed, to some extent, to escape through a small hole in the top, which at first was kept closed. The effect upon the geraniums was certainly almost instantaneous; the buds beginning to burst in about five or six minutes, and the plants being in full bloom within ten minutes, when the blossoms were gathered by M. Herbert, and distributed amongst the ladies present. With the rose tree the exhibitor was less fortunate. The invention may prove useful where ladies require to decorate their drawing-rooms or boudoirs with the beauties of the floral world somewhat earlier in the season than they can otherwise be obtained. It must not, however, be forgotten that the plants are, as it were, parboiled during the process, and die after a few days.

As regards the sanitary value of flowers, Mantegazza, of Pavia, states that ozone is generated in larger quantities by certain plants possessing spicy aromatic odours, than by the action of electricity upon the air. He says that in some plants this ozone is developed by the direct rays of the sun, whilst in others the action, once begun in solar light, is continued in darkness; and that cherry-laurel, clove, lavender, mint, lemon, fennel, narcissus, heliotrope, hyacinth, mignonette, &c., all produce ozone largely on exposure to the rays of the sun.[315] He also finds that whilst the ozonigenic properties of flowers reside mainly in their perfumes, the most odoriferous yielding the largest amount of ozone, certain others possessing no particular perfume, have extraordinary ozonigenic power; as, for instance, the sunflower, broad belts of which were planted by the late Commodore Maury around the grounds of the national observatory at Washington, to the effect of which he attributed the after immunity of his family from intermittent fevers.[316]

[Footnote 315: The experiments of Mr Kingzetti on the limited oxidation of essential oils, lead to the inference that instead of ozone, peroxide of hydrogen is the body evolved.--ED.]

[Footnote 316: Recent researches seem to have shown that the hygienic properties of the sun-flower, like those of the Eucalyptus, are chiefly, if not wholly due to the power the plant possesses of abstracting enormous quantities of moisture from the soil, and thus removing from certain localities an active element in the production of malaria.--ED.]

The collection and preservation of flowers for medicinal purposes and distillation, will be found noticed under VEGETABLES.

=Flowers, Artificial.= The beauty and value of these pleasing articles of personal decoration mainly depend upon the taste and ingenuity of the maker. The delicate fingers of woman, and her ready powers of imitation and invention, combined with her natural affection for the chaste and beautiful, have enabled her the more especially to excel in this manufacture. The productions of the female artificial florists of the French capital are justly admired everywhere.

The French employ velvet, kid, and fine cambric for the petals, and taffeta for the leaves. Very recently thin plates of bleached whalebone have been used with great success for some portions of artificial flowers.

As colours and stains, the following are employed in Paris:--

BLUE. Indigo dissolved in oil of vitriol, and the acid partly neutralised with salt of tartar or whiting.

GREEN. A solution of distilled verdigris.

LILAC. Liquid archil.

RED. Carmine dissolved in a solution of salt of tartar, or in spirits of hartshorn.

VIOLET. Liquid archil, mixed with a little salt of tartar.

YELLOW. Tincture of turmeric.

The above colours are usually applied to the petals with the fingers.

=Flowers.= _Syn._ FLORES, L. Among chemists, this term is applied to various pulverulent substances obtained by sublimation, as flowers of antimony, benzoin, zinc, sulphur, &c. The term has been discarded from modern chemical nomenclature, but is still commonly employed in familiar language and trade.

=FLUID CAM'PHOR.= _Prep._ (Sir J. Murray.) From camphor (in powder), 1 dr.; freshly precipitated carbonate of magnesia, 2 dr.; cold distilled water, 1 pint; the solution is effected by forcing in carbonic acid gas under pressure. Each fl. oz. contains 3 gr. of camphor, and 6 gr. of carbonate of magnesia. See ESSENCE OF CAMPHOR.

=FLUID MAGNE'SIA.= _Syn._ LIQUOR MAGNESIÆ CARBONATIS, L. M. BICARBONATIS, L. The preparations sold under this name are mere solutions of freshly precipitated carbonate of magnesia in water, formed by means of carbonic acid gas, under powerful pressure, and long agitation. Those best known are Sir J. Murray's and Mr Dinneford's, each fl. oz. of which is said to contain about 17-1/2 gr. of the carbonate, but their actual richness in the latter seldom exceeds 10 or 12 gr., and by the time they reach the consumer is often as low as 5 or 6 gr. Recently precipitated carbonate of magnesia placed in a bottle or other suitable vessel, which is then filled by means of a soda-water apparatus with water fully charged with carbonic acid gas, readily dissolves on slight and cautious agitation, and the aërated water becomes saturated with magnesia. A scruple of carbonate of magnesia put into a soda-water bottle, and thus treated, is all taken up in from 20 minutes to half an hour, and the beverage continues beautifully clear.

=FLUID-OZON= (J. Krohn, Munich, with a certificate from Justus von Liebig). A mouth wash and toilet water. An aqueous solution of permanganate of soda, 1 in 9, contaminated with traces of sodium sulphate and chloride. (Wittstein.)

=FLUM'MERY.= A species of thick hasty-pudding made with oatmeal or rice, flavoured with milk, cream, almonds, orange flowers, lemons, &c., according to fancy.

_Prep._ 1. (DUTCH FLUMMERY.) From blancmange and eggs, flavoured with lemon peel and sweetened with sugar.

2. (FRENCH FLUMMERY.) From equal parts of blancmange and cream, sweetened, and flavoured. The above are poured into forms, and served cold, to eat with wine, spirit, cider, &c.

3. (A. T. Thomson.) Take oatmeal or groats, 1 quart; rub it for a considerable time with hot water, 2 quarts; and let the mixture stand until it becomes sour; then add another quart of hot water, and strain through a hair sieve. Let stand till a white sediment is deposited, decant the fluid portion, and wash the sediment with cold water. This is now to be boiled with fresh water, until it forms a mucilage, stirring the whole time. A light and nutritious food, during early convalescence.

=FLUOBORIC ACID.= _Syn._ BOROFLUORIC ACID. This may be easily prepared by saturating hydrofluoric acid with boracic acid, keeping the mixture cool, and then concentrating it in platinum vessels till dense fumes arise.

=FLUOHYDRIC ACID.= See FLUORIDE OF HYDROGEN.

=FLU'ORIDE OF HYDROGEN.= HF. _Syn._ FLUOHYDRIC ACID; HYDROFLUORIC ACID; A. HYDROFLUORICUM, L. An acid composed of hydrogen and fluorine. It was discovered by Scheele, but was first obtained in a pure state by Gay-Lussac and Thénard, in 1810.

_Prep._ Pour concentrated sulphuric acid on half its weight of fluor spar, carefully separated from siliceous earth, and reduced to fine powder. The mixture must be made in a capacious leaden retort, and a gentle heat only applied, and the evolved gas must be collected in a leaden receiver, surrounded by ice.

_Prop., &c._ A colourless fluid below 59° Fahr., which speedily evaporates in dense white fumes when exposed to the air. Its affinity for water exceeds that of sulphuric acid, and its combination with that fluid is accompanied with a hissing noise, and a considerable increase of its sp. gr. up to a certain point. It attacks glass and silica, for which reason it cannot be preserved in glass vessels. Bottles of lead, silver, platinum, or pure gutta percha, are used to keep it in. It is highly corrosive, instantaneously destroying the skin on contact, and producing deep and serious ulcerations; its vapour is pungent, irritating, irrespirable, and poisonous. With the bases it unites to form FLUORIDES.

In the arts, hydrofluoric acid is used for etching on glass.

=FLU'ORIDES.= Compounds of fluorine with metals and other basic radicals. The fluorides of the metals are, with the exception of those of the alkaline metals, insoluble in water, while the fluorides of hydrogen, boron, and silicon, are gaseous, condensing at a low temperature to volatile liquids.

=FLU'ORINE.= F. _Syn._ FLUORINIUM, L. An element that has not yet been isolated, owing to its attacking and combining with every element or compound that at present has been exposed to it, except oxygen. It is presumably gaseous, and of a pale greenish-yellow colour.

=FLU'OSILICIC ACID.= _Syn._ FLUORIDE OF SILICON AND HYDROGEN; HYDROFLUOSILIC ACID. _Prep._ From powdered fluor spar, and siliceous sand or powdered glass, of each 1 part; concentrated sulphuric acid, 2 parts: mix in a glass retort, apply a gentle heat, and pass the evolved gas into water through a layer of mercury. Decomposition ensues, silica being deposited in a gelatinous state, and hydrofluosilicic acid or fluosilic acid remains in solution. The acid liquor is used as a test for potassium and barium, with whose salts it yields nearly insoluble precipitates.

=FLUX.= _Syn._ FLUXUS, FLUOR, L. In _medicine_, a term formerly applied to several diseases attended with a copious discharge, as diarrh[oe]a (FLUX), dysentery (BLOODY FLUX), English cholera (BILIOUS FLUX), fluor albus (WHITE FLUX), &c. These terms are still current among the vulgar.

=Flux.= In metallurgy, &c., a term applied to various substances of easy fusibility, which are added to others which are more refractory, to promote their fusion.

_Prep._ 1. (BLACK FLUX.) Nitre, 1 part; crude tartar or cream of tartar, 2 parts; mix, and deflagrate, by small quantities at a time, in a crucible, heated to dull redness. The product consists of carbonate of potassa, mixed with charcoal in a finely divided state. Used for smelting metallic ores. It exercises a reducing action, as well as promotes the fusion. It must be kept in a dry corked bottle.

2. (CHRISTISON'S FLUX.) Carbonate of soda (cryst.), 8 parts; charcoal (in fine powder), 1 part; heat the mixture gradually to redness. For reducing arsenic.