iSyi.] TABLE AND ROOM DECORATION. Ill 



How to decorate a dinner-table is a question not easy to answer in 

 words, so much depends on the utensils used and other accessories; but 

 it will be found a very simple matter generally with a liberal supply 

 of materials. Miniature flower-borders made of tin troughs from 1 

 to 2 inches wide, filled with sand and flowers, and of every variety of 

 shape, have become very fashionable of late years for table decoration. 

 However toyish they may be, they are very elegant and pretty when taste- 

 fully arranged, and a light description of plant used for the middle of the 

 table, such as Cyperis alternifolius. Cocas Weddelliana, or the narrow- 

 leaved Dracaenas. Eor fringing these little borders, besides Ferns we flnd 

 the flat sprigs of Cupressus Lawsoniana very useful, and nothing more 

 pretty in winter when materials are scarce. The leaves of the various 

 varieties of Coleus, such as Queen Victoria, Baroness Rothschild, or 

 Duke of Edinburgh, are also very pretty as margins. Each section of 

 the design should have a character of its own, and should be balanced 

 like a well-planted flower-garden. 



When a table is of sufficient size, a great variety of design can be 

 made with a plateau of glass, covering the whole of the middle of the 

 table, on which lakes and lawn and rock work can be produced in 

 miniature, to imitate a landscape view. Small Ferns and Lycopods are 

 indispensable for this sort of work, which must not be attempted 

 without a great variety of small plants specially got ready for the pur- 

 pose — Lycopodium densum and L. denticulatum grown in broad shal- 

 low patches, so as to be easily turned out in match pairs and healthy 

 tufts in small pots for filling in. We have seen designs of this 

 description repeatedly arranged on the table-cloth, and they have a 

 very novel and pretty eff'ect by candle-light. 



In arranging cut flowers in stands, vases, or glasses, the tastes of 

 gardeners and of employers differ. If the latter, the gardener must fol- 

 low suite. We sometimes see flowers made up to a compact face, and 

 close like a Covent Garden bouquet, as round as an inverted basin or 

 pyramidal as a loaf of sugar, with the flowers arranged to contrast in 

 geometrical uniformity — as, for instance, different varieties of Verbenas 

 arranged according to their colours, or Chrysanthemums, in winter. 

 We think this a very material or mechanical taste. Colours in a vase of 

 flowers should certainly be blended with an eye to their contrast and 

 effect ; and no eye of real taste would tolerate an ill-balanced, mis- 

 shapely vase of flowers ; but we think it should be done with something 

 of nature's freedom, light and graceful. The necessity of the case 

 may be sufficient apology for the packing and building expended 

 on a hand bouquet, but there is no such excuse for the table bouquet 

 arranged on moss or sand ; indeed, many of the best of flowers of 

 a spikate habit, such as Liliums, Calanthes, Hyemalis Heaths or 



