186 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



logical bearings of the question, autumn-struck 

 cuttings generally bloom more profusely than 

 those propagated in spring. Without making the 

 Torenia a peg on which to hang general deduc- 

 tions, several things must be attended to for ob- 

 taining large plants in such a short time. 



1st. The plants were grown very fast under the 

 partial shade of the vines; the flowering princi- 

 ple was brought into operation when exposed to 

 more light. It should always be screened from 

 very bright sunshine. 



2d. The one-shift system, or nearly so, must 

 be resorted to, and rough and lumpy soil be used. 

 Those who shift their plants frequently, and use 

 tine soil, must have patience in waiting longer for 

 a large specimen. 



3d. Watering must be given with judgment. 

 If you cannot water them yourself, and must de- 

 pend upon an assistant, who gives everything in 

 turn its regular pouring from the water-pot, then 

 you had better content yourself with frequent 

 shifting. Liquid manure may be given sparingly 

 the first season, liberally the second. 



4th. The difference of treatment, as respects 

 stimulants in the first and second year, is based 

 upon the principle, that if applied the first, year 

 there would be fine jirowth but little flowering. 

 After the comparative standstill treatment of 

 winter, there would be a great tendency to bloom- 

 ing the second year, and, therefore, to maintain 

 for a long period that blooming process, growth 

 by stimulation must be continued. R. Fish. Cot- 

 tage Gardener. 



Bouquets. — Mr. Richard Payne Knight, 

 one of our most judicious writers upon " The 

 Principles of Taste," has observed that " when 

 many sorts and varieties of flowers are skillfully 

 arranged and combined as in the flower-pots of 

 Vanhuysum, they form, perhaps, the most perfect 

 spectacle of mere sensual beauty that is anywhere 

 to be found." At page 193, we gave a few hints 

 how flowers might thus be " skillfully arranged 

 and combined," but such of our readers as can re- 

 fer to one of Vanhuysum's paintings of flowers 

 will there see " philosophy teaching by example." 

 They will observe that, in grouping his flowers, 

 this most exquisite painter usually placed the 

 brightest in the centre, gradually decreasing in 

 intensity of colour from that centre to the edges 

 of his groups. They will also find that in each of 

 these lovely nosegays there is one prevailing co- 

 lour. If it were not so, the group would appear 

 patchy or spotty ; and in forming our bouquets we 

 shall find the importance of following the same 

 rules. If a spray of bright crimson roses be in 

 the centre, paler roses should be nearer to it on 

 either side as well as above ; if geraniums prevail 

 in our group, the scarlet should be in the centre, 

 and the lighter tinted varieties more distant from 

 it, according to their hues. 



One correspondent asks us " which we think 

 should be the most prevalent colour in bouquets?" 



But it is impossible to lay down any rule for this. 

 All are beautiful, and the decision of which is the 

 most so, varies with the taste of the judge, and 

 that taste is influenced by such circumstances as 

 associated colours, climate, and seasons. Thus, 

 we thought, when about to settle for a time with- 

 in the tropics, that green would be a cool and re- 

 freshing colour for the eye to rest upon ; but, so 

 far from this being the case, we found that crim- 

 son was the most pleasing for the furniture of our 

 rooms. In some degree, this arose from the ex- 

 cess of that cold absence of color — white — which 

 predominated in the objects around, from the cos- 

 tume of the native servants to the entire walls of 

 the apartments. Yet it is the same w T e think, 

 even in England. Here, a bouquet of the bright- 

 est flowers is more agreeable to the eye in our 

 drawing-rooms than one of paler tints during the 

 intense heat of a summer-day's noontide. 



On these points we have received the following 

 letter from a correspondent evidently accustomed 

 to practice what good taste dictates: — 



" One of the most beautiful bouquets I ever saw 

 was composed of a mass of scarlet geraniums in- 

 terspersed with fairy white roses, and surrounded 

 by half-blown double white camellias. A very 

 pretty bouquet for mourning may be formed of 

 white flowers surrounded by double violets. No 

 bouquet is good without a rich green and a dead 

 white. The flowers should be arranged in masses. 

 For instance, gather myrtle for the green, scarlet 

 geranium, a large tea-scented rose or two, a gar- 

 denia or Italian jessamine (if not come-at-able, 

 some common jessamine.) some golden calceola- 

 ria, and a bunch of nemophylla insignis or blue 

 salvia, and we have the three primitive colours at 

 once, which cannot fail to be pleasing to the eye, 

 whether in painting, needlework, or the furniture 

 of a room, in fact, in every artificial arrangement 

 of colours.* I have never been able to make a 

 small nosegay look well where purples and lilacs 

 were introduced, unless all reds and blues were 

 excluded. In a large vase, of course, the com- 

 pound colours may be separated from the primi- 

 tive, and look extremely well.f The flowers I 

 have named are selected because they are found in 

 every garden. Crassula coccinea would be a splen- 

 did substitute for the geranium; dwarf magnolia 

 for the rose, and blue achimenes for the salvia. 

 The plumbago larpentas is also a lovely flower for 

 the purpose. A bouquet for the hand should be 

 formed by winding a long string round the centre 

 flower and successively round each as it is placed 

 which will bind them firmly together." 



A physician, who wishes " Vibgyor" to appear 

 as the shadow of his name, observes in another 

 letter now before us: — 



" Transplanting plants in flower, to accomplish 

 various desired effects in the way either of harmo- 



* The three primitive colours, from which all others may 

 be composed, are red, blue and yellow. 



t The compound colours, so far as flowers for bouquets 

 are concerned, are orange, green, indigo, and violet- 



