41 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



let it suflBce for me to say the best manner of learning this art ia to 

 purchase a good specimen of a hand and button-hole bouquet at 

 some first-class florist's, take it to pieces, and see how each bloom is 

 mounted. Tliough there may not be very many diff"erent flowers iu 

 the bouquet, you can easily see how the same mounting which suits 

 tills bloom would be equally adapted to that, and so on, as the case 



111:1V ho. 



As a rule, all hand bouquets have their centre formed of some 

 large-sized flower, sucli as a camellia, eucharis, gardenia, etc., and 

 then the other portions of the bouquet are composed of such flowers 

 as roses, violets, azaleas, pelargoniums, stephanotis, or whatever else 

 may be obtainable. Some admire bouquets mounted in patterns 

 such as bands of distinct colours, or a coloured cross on a white 

 ground, while others prefer them simply mixed. But this is quite a 

 matter of taste. I shall give descriptions of some I have myself 

 made, and which were successful in taking prizes at the Crystal 

 Palace, and exhibitions of the Royal Botanic Society. Some were 

 brides' bouquets, others for daylight purposes, and some for balls or 

 the opera. In the latter case, they had to be made of colours which 

 would endure subjection to artificial light. I shall first take, for 

 example, the bride's bouquet, to which was awarded the silver 

 medal at the Regent's Park show. The centre was composed of a 

 very large-sized gardenia bloom, while round it was a ring formed of 

 the common white woodruff, then came stephanotis, jasmine, azalea, 

 etc., four blooms of Eucharis amazonia being also placed so as to form 

 quarters, while the whole was dotted over with blooms of lily of the 

 valley and white campanula, so placed that they stood up well above 

 the other flowers, and tended to give a light look, which should 

 always be aimed at iu this style of arrangements. Through these, 

 and above the whole, were fronds of Adiantnm cuneatum, a fringe of 

 which was also formed round the outer edge, the whole being 

 finished ofl" with a handsome paper (with white lace round the edge), 

 and tied with a white satin ribbon bow, and long ends. 



The ball bouquet, for which 1 was also awarded a medal at the 

 8;ime exhibition, was made of scarlet and white flowers in the form 

 of a scarlet cross on a white ground, a bloom of eucharis being in 

 the centre of the cross, and also forming the centre of the bouquet. 

 The cross was formed of single pips, or flowers of a bright scarlet 

 geranium, and the quarters of stephanotis, gardenias, white carna- 

 tions, rose-buds, woodruff", and lily of the valley, with plenty of 

 fronds of light maiden-hair fern distributed through the whole and 

 round the outer edge ; it was finished off, in regard to the paper, in 

 much the same style as the bride's, only one end of ribbon was 

 scarlet, in place of both being white. 



That for which I was awarded a prize at the Crystal Palace was 

 for morning use, such as a wedding, etc. It was arranged also in 

 the form of a cross ; only in place of the cross being formed of 

 scarlet geranium pips, it was made of large purple pansies of a rich 

 shade. In the centre was a white camellia, and the four quarters 

 were made of stephanotis, azalea, geranium, gardenia, etc., and in 

 the centre of each quarter of white was a tuft of blue forget-me- 



