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they can be taken off when the flowers are staged 
for exhibition. The boxes are filled with green 
moss, into which zine tubes holding water are 
inserted for the reception of blooms. The tubes 
may be from 3 to 34 inches deep, and about ¢ inch 
wide. When three trusses of each variety are to 
be exhibited, the tubes are placed in a triangular 
form, each to hold one stem. 
When cutting blooms, choose, if possible, the 
early part of the morning, before the dew is off. 
Blooms gathered at this time will continue fresh 
throughout the day, but if cut when the sun is 
upon them, many of the thin-petaled varieties 
will fade in a few hours. When they cannot be 
gathered in the morning, let it be done late in the 
evening, putting the stems into water immediately. 
In gathering and selecting the blooms, some little 
practice and skill, as well as an acquaintance 
with the varieties, will be necessary to enable 
the exhibitor to form a correct judgment as 
to the precise stage in which a flower should be 
when cut, so as to show the real character of the 
variety, and to be preserved perfect throughout 
the day of the show. If it be necessary to gather 
the flowers the morning before the day of the 
show, many of the thin-petaled varieties must 
not be more than half expanded ; the stiff and 
thick-petaled kinds may be nearly fully so. In 
very hot weather it will not be safe to depend 
upon any blooms which have been fully expanded 
and exposed to the sun for even a few hours. In 
the autumn or in cool weather this is not so 
