1624 



The Cornell Reading Courses 



orange in nasturtiums or calendulas or from blue to violet in sweet peas 

 or pansies. 



Often flowers borne singly, such as carnations or chrysanthemums, 

 daisies or lilies, are cut with stems the same length and i^laced without 

 thought in a vase. A feeling for rhythm would lead one to cut the stems 

 in different, related lengths; then the flowers of themselves would fall 

 into a fairly agreeable arrangement. 



This principle of rhythm is observed in man}- arrangements made by 

 the Japanese and is secured by them by the use of poetical s\Tnbolism, 

 which gives fanciful names, such as man and woman, or principal and 

 support, to the important and less important features in a two-stem 

 arrangement (Fig. 25, i); principal, secondary, and tertiary, or father, 

 mother, and child, or heaven, earth, and man, to the three-stem arrange- 



Principal PnncipttI 



Sub prtncipa 



TerTi 



Fig. 25. — Japanese fioiver arrangements: 1, Iwn-line arrangement; 2, three-line arrange- 

 ment; 3 five-line arrangement; 4, 5, 6, 7, various three-line arrangements 



ment (Fig. 25, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7); center, north, south, east, and west, or earth, 

 fire, water, metal, and wood, or heart, help, the guest, skill, and the 

 finishing touch, to the five-part aiTangement (Fig. 25, 3), according to the 

 school or the nature of the arrangement. 



But, remarkable as these arrangements are, it is not necessary to study 

 oriental symbolism or legend or custom to make others that are equally 

 good. The principles of art are fundamental and eternal; they know 

 no Orient nor Occident. Their forms of expression, to be sure, may vary ac- 

 cording to the people, the climate, and the age, but in the last analysis 

 any artistic product measures its worth according to its obedience to these 

 principles. They are obeyed as implicitly in a good arrangement of flowers 

 as in the making of any other good design. These principles, like the 

 Japanese symbolism, mean simply that in a good arrangement of flowers 

 there should always be a dominant, or central, feature — blossom or mass 

 or line — that the other features should be rhythmically related to it, 



