232 PRACTICAL 



this and hair wire cut to three inches, the " stemmer" 

 goes to work. By a rapid twist one end of the wire is 

 fastened on the straw, and the flower is attached by a 

 whirl of the stem between linger and thumb, as in 

 figure 54. Stemming is a large part 

 of the labor of bouquet making, and 

 rather distasteful to the amateur. One . 

 bouquet maker requires two stem- ^. 

 mers, and a very prosy business it 

 soon becomes to both, and vastly less 

 interesting than the growing of flowers. 

 Strong spool cotton or shoe thread is 

 used for tying up the flowers. Camellia 

 stems being entirely unavailable, a wire 

 the thickness of a pin is passed through 

 the calyx of the flower, the ends being 

 twisted together. It is then stemmed 

 on a light, dried willow (wooden tooth- 

 picks are also much used for stems), 

 which admits of bending to the required 

 position. Flowers thus stemmed have 

 sufficient moss wound under the flower to prevent its 

 outer petals being at all compressed, when set in the 

 boi:q-iet. Without some such provision it is impossible, 

 either to attain the rounding outline of the bouquet, or 

 to display the flowers in perfection. 



With flowers prepared, let us take a Camellia [In the 

 method of construction to-day, for Camellias, large Rose- 

 buds are used. P. H.] for the center of our bouquet, tie 

 it securely to the bouquet stem (a piece of kite stick or 

 stiff twig), and wind moss around it, as already described, 

 to keep the flower from outer pressure, the moss riuming 

 to a point about two inches below the flower. Six yellow 

 Tea Rose-buds are now set at regular intervals around and 

 on a line with the outer petals of the Camellia, and the 

 spaces between these each filled with a small piece of 



