CONSTRUCTION OF BOUQUETS, ETC. 149 



mcnt in this business have given him an enviable reputa- 

 tion, and my readers, many of whom are deeply interested 

 ,on this subject, will, I am certain, heartily join with me in 

 thanking him for his clear, comprehensive, and unreserved 



o 



account. 



CONSTRUCTION OF BOUQUETS, BASKETS, ETC. 



With the earliest civilization of our race, flowers began 

 to be cherished, and employed for decorative purposes ; 

 nor is their arrangement in bouquets a modern art,although 

 its practice is of comparatively recent and marvellous 

 growth amongst us. 



Many people decry the artificial arrangement of flowers, 

 but how shall we otherwise use them to advantage? 

 The moment we begin to tie them together we leave nature, 

 and ought to do so only to study art. In their simplest 

 arrangement, form and color must be studied to produce 

 the best effect, and whoever best accomplishes this, will 

 surely succeed in displaying his flowers to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



Bouquet making is (or at least ought to be) the art of 

 arranging flowers. Who has not seen bunches of beau- 

 tiful flowers cut from the garden and tied up in the least 

 artistic fashion with the most stupid result ? And who 

 that has attended fashionable weddings or parties has not 

 occasionally seen a large bouquet or basket in which the 

 quantity of good flowers was its only merit, where a mass 

 of flowers were muddled together in a most incongruous 

 fashion, equally removed from both nature and art ? Nor is 

 this fault that of the tyro in bouquet making only ; many 

 who practice it as an occupation have not learned the first 

 principles of tasteful arrangement. Yet great allowance 

 may be made for the bouquet makers, when we consider 

 how much like labor their work becomes. Any one, try- 

 ing always to execute this work with taste, would scarcely 



