104 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



"weather. But a bunch of roses in the same kind of box would not 

 hold together in a journey of fifty miles ; indeed, they would shrivel 

 and separate into their component parts before they reached the 

 post-ofhce, if put into a chip or card-board box without moisture- 

 holding packing on a hot summer day. The usual failing in the 

 sending of flowers by post is packing them in dry cotton wool, which 

 robs them of their moisture, and appears to be peculiarly adapted 

 to rob them also of all proper form and colour, for the very wor.-t 

 examples that come to our hands are those packed in this absorbent 

 material in boxes that offer no resiftance to the action of heat and 

 dry air. A rose or a truss of scarlet geranium may be regarded as 

 affording the best possible test of skill in packing and posting flowers, 

 for, fi-om the instant of their being cut, they are in haste to fall to 

 pieces, unless sustained by suitable surroundings. 



In order to furnish the reader with some useful information, we- 

 \Aill suppose we are called upon to send flowers of all kinds and 

 sizes, in all sorts of waj^s, by post or rail, or messenger, on long and 

 short journeys, in all sorts of weather. We shall cut a few that are 

 only half expanded, and having placed them between three or four 

 freshly-cut leaves of Irish ivy, shall put them in a common paper 

 envelope, and seal them up, and trust them to the post without fear. 

 A certain amount of crushing they must be subjected to, but a 

 twelve hours' journey will not destroy their character, for the ivy 

 leaves will hold them firmly but softly, and impart to them moisture 

 sufficient to sustain them for many hours. Large flowers, and 

 especially such as are of succulent texture, cannot be transmitted 

 in this way ; it is indeed adapted only to such as are scarcely more 

 substantial than a primrose or a buttercup. 



We will now gather a bunch of flowers of fine quality, and adopt 

 measures to despatch them safely a considerable distance. We shall 

 bribe the doorkeeper of the household storeroom to find us an empty 

 barrel of the kind that mustard, arrowroot, and other farinaceous 

 comforts are usually packed in, both for sale and keeping. Having 

 obtained the barrel, we shall bore a small hole in it with a brad-awl 

 at each end, and provide a length of string of a size that will pass 

 the holes easily. The next business will be to tie the flowers to the 

 string as close as possible, then pass one end of the string, with the 

 flowers head downwards, through the hole in the bottoni of the 

 barrel, and fill in carefully betvreen the flowers with damp moss, or 

 fresh grass mowings, or fresh leaves of any kind, those of the privet 

 being perhaps the most suitable. Finally draw the other end of the 

 string through the lid, shut up the flowers, and tie the two ends of 

 the string over the outside, and your flowers are prepared for a long 

 journey. You might throw the box from hand to hand, as the Duke 

 of Queensbury's twenty-four cricketers contrived to send a cricket- 

 ball fifty miles within the space of an hour. 



Larger undertakings must be conducted on the same principle ; 

 the flowers must be fixed in the first instance, and then carefully 

 bedded in moss, grass mowings, or green leaves ; the grand thing 

 is to prevent evaporatio}i. If the flowers are actually wet, they 

 will decay at a most rapid rate ; if actually dry, they will surely 



