226 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



merits of any article can be well judged ; and the best 

 connoisseurs of arranged flowers are not to be found 

 amongst gardeners, who have few opportunities of com- 

 paring such things, but amongst the lovers of flowers, 

 the men and women of cultivated tastes who, having 

 leisure and means, find pleasure in studying their merits, 

 an:l thus set up for themselves a higher standard of 

 excellence. An unskilled person set to judge a collec- 

 tion of Pansy flowers would probably not arrive at the 

 same conclusions as one who judged the same flowers by 

 the standard rules, which hold the circle, the thick and 

 smooth petal, the sharply defined eye and the distinct divi- 

 sion of colors, as the only true marks of perfection. A 

 hand bouquet may have its colors inlaid like mosaic with 

 very good effect, and if the coloring be well toned and 

 contrasted, such a bouquet made with skill, like prize 

 Pansies, would compel any one who saw it to admire it, 

 although many would object to it as stiff and unnatural, 

 which it certainly is, but it is also a handsome bouquet 

 nevertheless. 



There are some flowers the colors of which repel all 

 close communication with others ; such are the purple, 

 ruddy purple and most of the striped carnations, all 

 Eoses with even a tinge of purple (and this includes 

 most of the hardy Eoses, as well as others), in fact, there 

 is scarcely any shade of purple which can be used to 

 advantage in bouquet making. Excepting blue like that 

 of the Violet, there is scarcely any shade of blue, even, 

 which can be advantageously used m a closely-arranged 

 bouquet ; and the Violet, beautiful though it be, is a very 

 ineffective flower by gaslight. Still more so is the favorite 

 Heliotrope. 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 pubescens, either in bud or blossom, as a border- 

 ing fringe are exceedingly beautiful and put to shame 



