294 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to the composition, and all the rest being subservient to these and supporting 

 them. For instance, the principal feature of the bouquet may be roses or 

 camellias, and the prevailing colors pink delicately shading into black and 

 white, with a dash of bright scarlet, or violet, to set off the white. A tasteful 

 writer on this subject says: "The incongruous mixing of colors in a great 

 measure destroys the effect of the finest flowers, while the more delicately the 

 coloring is blended, and the more strikingly contrasted, the more perfect and 

 pleasing the result. Yellow may occasionally be used with good effect, and 

 seems to blend best with blue shades. Crimson and scarlet should never he 

 placed side by side or used in the same bouquet, as one destroys the other. 

 Purple and blue should also be avoided." Just as much taste and judgment 

 should be exercised in the arrangement of colors in a floral design as in a 

 bonnet or dress. Green should always be used in abundance. Indeed, each 

 flower set in a bed of green prevents one detracting from the beauty of another. 

 The simplest and most common way of arranging flowers is placing them in 

 vases, the more loosely and unconfined the better. To accomplish this one 

 must have plenty of green to keep the flowers apart. Crowding should always 

 be avoided. Flowers of similar size and shape should not be placed together, 

 for both being of the same character, if not of the same kind, are so inter- 

 mingled that we lose sight of the real beauty of both. Arrange them in the 

 most graceful manner possible, avoiding all stiffness; easy and unconfined, 

 as if they grew in that particular position, with here and there a sprig of fern, 

 spikelet of heath, or graceful trailing vine. There are many ways of arranging 

 flowers. Even the poorest need not be deprived of their refining influence, 

 and with a little taste can render the plainest home charming and attractive 

 by these, nature's loveliest adornments. Vases should be of a delicate tint, 

 never of a dense color. Select those which are wide at the top — trumpet- 

 shaped are the most graceful — thus permitting the use of drooping vines. 

 Pretty, open work-baskets filled with flowers, with fine vines twined over the 

 handles, make very pretty floral pieces. Pyramids of various descriptions are 

 beautiful for center pieces. Few ladies seem to realize how much more 

 attractive a home may be made by the use of flowers. Tables, sideboards, and 

 mantels, especially if the latter has a mirror at its back, afford a fine place 

 for a floral display. Like all gifts which come from our Creator, they are 

 free to all who have minds to admire and energy and taste to cultivate and 

 arrange them. They do not spring up at our bidding, nor are we always 

 obliged to seek greenhouses for them, but they may be found by the roadside, 

 in the woodland or meadow, springing up here, there, and everywhere, bearing 

 to us glad tidings of our Father's great goodness and love. 



After some discussion as to the needs of the society, and the way to make 

 its meetings effective, the society adjourned. 



March Meethig. 



At this meeting the subject under discussion was "The Vegetable Garden; 

 What and How to Plant." As the preliminary to work in the open ground, 

 the management of a hot-bed was talked over by President Gibson and others, 

 bringing out the best methods for the private and commercial garden. In 

 brief, for a family garden, prepare a pit two feet or so deep, and, say, six by 

 nine feet, for three sashes each three by six feet; put these sashes onto a box- 

 like frame made to cover the pit, and so that the sashes are removable, but as 

 tight-fitting as may be, and with a slight pitch to the south. The pit should 



