294 



WINDOW GARDENING. 



drops woven in, present a most attractive appearance. The flowers are often 

 arranged in tiny bottles, which keep them fresh a great while if a little salt and 

 saltpetre are added to the water. These baskets are often suspended by wires, 

 and long ivy wreaths can be twined about them. 



Other baskets are arranged with a cross-bar of green, dividing them into four 

 quarters, with a double row of white edging the green. Scarlet Geraniums 

 and Blue Hyacinths fill up the interstices, but usually if one color is kept 

 as a ground work, and another as a filling, the better will be the effect. Baskets 

 can be arranged with branches of Ivy growing in bottles of water, mingled with 



pressed fern and autumn leaves 

 that have all the effect of growing 

 plants, and can be suspended in a 

 cool bay window where plants 

 would never grow. The Ivy can 

 be trained to creep up the cords 

 and the ferns arranged in clusters 

 by themselves. Pressed mosses 

 can fill up ail crevices, and the 

 water with charcoal to keep it 

 fresh, will not require any change> 

 but only to be filled up once in three 

 weeks. There will be no danger 

 of its dripping upon the carpet, nor 

 being chilled unless the tempera- 

 ture falls below freezing. 



Long pieces of Ivy can be pur- 

 chased at the florists, and they will 

 soon strike root and grow finely. 



In arranging vases that will stand 

 far from close inspection, very 

 large, bright flowers are the most 

 desirable. Dahlias for the centre 

 piece, surrounded with full blown 

 Fig. 44. Stand .,f Oiuaiuentai Grasses. roses. Chrysanthemums, etc.; little 



delicate flowers are thrown away in such decorations. 



For wreathing picture frames and looking glasses, nothing is more beautiful 

 than evergreen, box, or myrtle boughs, thickly intermixed with Holly, Snow- 

 berries or Bitter-sweet, and the whole crowned by a bouquet of feathery Ferns 

 with evergreens and berries. 



For large green wreaths tied on the springs of hoop skirts firmly fastened 



together, the low growing evergreens of the pine woods are decidedly the best, 



and branches of spreading boughs of fir or hemlock can surmount each crown. 



The gray woolly wreaths of the Clematis, when it has gone to seed, mingle 



well with the bright berries and the dark hued evergreens. There is no decor- 



