FLOWER-DECORATION. 81 



of all kinds the dahlia furnishing, in its symmetry 

 and variety of colouring, an excellent material for 

 those who perhaps in their young days sowed their 

 own initials in mustard-and-cress, to inscribe in their 

 maturer years their sovereign's name in flowers. 

 Flowering plants and shrubs are at the same time 

 becoming more fashionable in our London ball-rooms. 

 No dread of " noxious exhalations " deters mammas 

 from decorating their halls and staircases with flowers 

 of every hue and fragrance, nor their daughters from 

 braving the headaches and pale cheeks which are 

 said to arise from such innocent and beautiful causes. 

 We would go one step further, and replace all artifi- 

 cial flowers by natural ones, on the dinner-table and 

 in the hair. Some of the more amaranthine flowers, 

 as the camellia and the hoya, which can bear the heat 

 of crowded rooms, or those of regular shapes, as the 

 dahlia and others, would, we are sure, with a little 

 contrivance in adjusting and preserving them, soon 

 eclipse the most artistical wreaths of Natier or 

 Foster; and we will venture to promise a good 

 partner for a waltz and for life to the first fair 

 debutante who will take courage to adopt the natural 

 flower in her " sunny locks." 



