THE FLOEAL "WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



373 



place they part company. Then the beauty of Venus and Adonis 

 is seen to be but skin deep, and the gigantic vase from which the 

 floral scrolls have fallen, has less elegance than the pile of clinkers 

 that make hideous the grand entrance to a genuine cockney's garden. 

 As remarked in a preceding page, however, artificial stones of many 

 distinct kinds are now manufactured, and many of them equal stone 

 both in durability and beauty of texture, so that unless we employ 

 the sculptor to make demonstration of his skill in Carrara marble, 

 we may do well to adopt these patented substitutes, which ar6 

 as cheap as they are good, and for the most part cast in such 

 artistic designs that they will merit to be regarded as works of art. 

 "We quite regret that our fixed rule of actiou precludes the recom- 

 mendation of some of the patented stones, but the warning offered 

 as to the compounds of cement and plaster may have some practical 

 value for the reader. Iron, of course, answers well in place of stone, 

 if designed for the purpose, and kept in good condition by regular 

 cleaning and painting. But the texture betrays it, and the paint is 

 an undesirable accessory — we should always prefer for decorative 

 works intended for pictorial uses only, stone, or its nearest imita- 

 tion, to iron, but where a mechanical strain is to be borne, as in a 

 balustrade or centlivre for example, iron of course will sweep every 

 other material out of the field for strength and elasticity. 



Rustic Furniture is often badly made, and of the worst mate- 

 rials. In purchasing expensive articles of this class it is necessary 



to guard agaitist obtaining timber in which dry rot has commenced, 

 though as to " guarding against " this contingency is no easy 

 matter. Until within the past ten years or so, manufacturers in the 

 eastern parts of London made use of cheap oak timber, the pro- 

 duce for the most part of the pollard oaks of Epping Forest. This 

 soon began to decay within by dry rot, which seldom gave any out- 

 ward sign, so that a rustic structure in which the process had long 

 been active, would preserve its respectable appearance until the 

 final collapse came, when it would subside into a wreck, and, to the 

 owner's surprise, be found to have long before consisted only of an 

 outer shell of varnish or paint, and a mass of mere dust within. 

 Those portions of the forest from which this treacherous timber was 

 obtained are now enclosed and cultivated ; but iu many another 

 -district a similarly bad material may be in use to the injury of pur- 

 December. 



