(A. B. R.)
FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL. Imitations of natural flowers are sometimes made for scientific purposes (as the collection of glass flowers at Harvard University, which illustrates the flora of the United States), but more often as articles of decoration and ornament. A large variety of materials have been used in their manufacture by different peoples at different times—painted linen and shavings of stained horn by the Egyptians, gold and silver by the Romans, rice-paper by the Chinese, silkworm cocoons in Italy, the plumage of highly coloured birds in South America, wax, small tinted shells, &c. At the beginning of the 18th century the French, who originally learnt the art from the Italians, made great advances in the accuracy of their reproductions, and towards the end of that century the Paris manufacturers enjoyed a world-wide reputation. About the same time the art was introduced into England by French refugees, and soon afterwards it spread also to America. The industry is now a highly specialized one and comprises a large number of operations performed by separate hands. Four main processes may be distinguished. The first consists of cutting up the various fabrics and materials employed into shapes suitable for forming the leaves, petals, &c.; this may be done by scissors, but more often stamps are employed which will cut through a dozen or more thicknesses at one blow. The veins of the leaves are next impressed by means of a die, and the petals are given their natural rounded forms by goffering irons of various shapes. The next step is to assemble the petals and other parts of the flower, which is built up from the centre outwards; and the fourth is to mount the flower on a stalk formed of brass or iron wire wrapped round with suitably coloured material, and to fasten on the leaves required to complete the spray.
FLOYD, JOHN (1572-1649), English Jesuit, was born in Cambridgeshire in 1572. He entered the Society of Jesus when at Rome in 1592 and is also known as Daniel à Jesu, Hermannus Loemelius, and George White, the names under which he published a score of controversial treatises. He had considerable fame both as a preacher and teacher, and was frequently arrested in England. His last years were spent at Louvain and he died at St Omer on the 15th of September 1649. His brother Edward Floyd was impeached and sentenced by the Commons in 1621 for speaking disparagingly of the elector palatine.
FLOYD, JOHN BUCHANAN (1807-1863), American politician, was born at Blacksburg, Virginia, on the 1st of June 1807. He was the son of John Floyd (1770-1837), a representative in Congress from 1817 to 1829 and governor of Virginia from 1830 to 1834. After graduating at South Carolina College in 1826, the son practised law in his native state and at Helena, Arkansas, and in 1839 settled in Washington county, Virginia, which in 1847-1849 and again in 1853 he represented in the state legislature. Meanwhile, from 1849 to 1852, he was governor of Virginia, in which position he recommended to the legislature the enactment of a law laying an import tax on the products of such states as refused to surrender fugitive slaves owned by Virginia masters. In March 1857 he became secretary of war in President Buchanan’s cabinet, where his lack of administrative ability was soon apparent. In December 1860, on ascertaining that Floyd had honoured heavy drafts made by government contractors in anticipation of their earnings, the president requested his resignation. Several days later Floyd was indicted for malversation in office, but the indictment was overruled on technical grounds. There is no proof that he profited by these irregular transactions; in fact he went out of the office financially embarrassed. Though he had openly opposed secession before the election of Lincoln, his conduct after that event, especially after his breach with Buchanan, fell under suspicion, and he was accused of having sent large stores of government arms to Southern arsenals in anticipation of the Civil War. In the last days of his term he apparently had such an intention, but during the year 1860 the Southern States actually received less than their full quota of arms. After the secession of Virginia he was commissioned a brigadier-general in the Confederate service. He was first employed in some unsuccessful operations in western Virginia, and in February 1862 became commander of the Confederate forces at Fort Donelson, from which he fled with his second in command, General Gideon J. Pillow, on the night of February 18, leaving General Simon B. Buckner to surrender to General Grant. A fortnight later President Davis relieved him of his command. He died at Abingdon, Virginia, on the 26th of August 1863.
FLOYER, SIR JOHN (1649-1734), English physician and author, was born at Hinters in Staffordshire, and was educated at Oxford. He practised in Lichfield, and it was by his advice that Dr Johnson, when a child, was taken by his mother to be touched by Queen Anne for the king’s evil on the 30th of March 1714. He died on the 1st of February 1734. Floyer was an advocate of cold bathing, introduced the practice of counting the rate of the pulse-beats, and gave an early account of the pathological changes in the lungs associated with emphysema.
His writings include:—Φαρμακο-Βάσανος: or the Touchstone of Medicines, discovering the virtues of Vegetables, Minerals and Animals, by their Tastes and Smells (2 vols., 1687); The praeternatural State of animal Humours described by their sensible Qualities (1696); An Enquiry into the right Use and Abuses of the hot, cold and temperate Baths in England (1697); A Treatise of the Asthma (1st ed., 1698); The ancient Ψυχρολουσία revived, or an Essay to prove cold Bathing both safe and useful (London, 1702; several editions 8vo; abridged, Manchester, 1844, 12mo); The Physician’s Pulse-watch (1707-1710); The Sibylline Oracles, translated from the best Greek copies, and compared with the sacred Prophecies (1st ed., 1713); Two Essays: the first Essay concerning the Creation, Aetherial Bodies, and Offices of good and bad Angels; the second Essay concerning the Mosaic System of the World (Nottingham, 1717); An Exposition of the Revelations (1719); An Essay to restore the Dipping of Infants in their Baptism (1722); Medicina Gerocomica, or the Galenic Art of preserving old Men’s Healths (1st ed., 1724); A Comment on forty-two Histories described by Hippocrates (1726).