CONSTRUCTION OF BOUQUETS, ETC. 187 



as stiff and unnatural, which it certainly is, but a hand 

 some bouquet nevertheless. 



There are some flowers whose colors repel all 

 close communication with others; such are the purple, 

 ruddy purple, and most of the striped carnations, all 

 roses with even a tinge of purple, (and this includes most 

 of the hardy roses, as well as others,) in fact, there is 

 scarcely any shade of purple which can be used to advant- 

 age in bouquet making. Excepting blue like that of the 

 violet, there is scarcely any shade of blue even, which can 

 be advantageously used in a closely arranged bouquet, and 

 the violet, beautiful though it be, is a very ineffective 

 flower by gaslight; still more so is the favorite helio- 

 trope. Many shades of yellow are harsh, yet some may 

 be used with good effect in bouquets, particularly when 

 toned with blue; for example, the racemes of acacia pubes- 

 cens, either in bud or blossom, as a bordering fringe are 

 exceedingly beautiful and put to shame that over-fastid- 

 ious taste which rejects all yellow flowers. Even estab- 

 lished rules on colors fail to guide us always in the 

 arrangement of flowers. Artists tell us that blue and green 

 should never come together, yet the violet can have no 

 more beautiful setting than its own green leaves, while 

 dark blue flowers show to equal advantage in their darker 

 green foliage. In Nature's own setting, all flowers are be- 

 coming; it is only by placing them at a disadvantage 

 that they can ever appear otherwise; but so infinite are their 

 shades and forms that their perfect arrangement in bou- 

 quets must ever be a work of taste and skill. We would 

 not assert that bouquet makers, like poets, " are born, not 

 made," yet we know that many in this, as in other call- 

 ings, are, and ever will be, utterly unfitted for the work 

 they undertake. 



Funeral flowers are now a very important part of the 

 florist's trade. Ten years ago, ten dollars' worth of flowers 

 were more rare at a funeral in New York than one hund- 



