20 Taste in Horticulture and in Designs. 



in their places ; but, to our mind, they should be real. They 

 should be works of art ; not skeletons of wood made with 

 saw and hammer and covered with fantastically arranged 

 flowers, where the design is merely to make surface of masses 

 of blossoms, or by pieces of moss and lichens glued on, to 

 cover up the wood. In the open air, a bust, a statue, a 

 broken column or a classic vase, are all attractive among 

 embowering walks and sylvan shades. A rudely constructed 

 arbor of crooked limbs of trees, naked or festooned with ap- 

 propriate vines, would be a fit recess for Flora ; and in larger 

 and more extended grounds, a moss-house is very well, in 

 the way of the picturesque, but such strange constructions of 

 moss and withered flowers, certainly seem to be very much 

 out of keeping, both with the Hall of the Society and with 

 the intentions of Horticulture. We never have been able to 

 look at all such efforts without a feeling that they were in a 

 high degree puerile ; and that they injured essentially the 

 purpose and eflect of public exhibitions of floricultural skill. 



We have always had a great admiration for a bouquet. At 

 any season of the year, such a bunch of flowers is particularly 

 agreeable. But the very idea of a bouquet seems to imply the 

 good old English and familiar word, nosegay ; some prettily 

 arranged and easily handled affair, which one could carry 

 lovingly about with him, and regale his olfactories with the 

 breath of more than Araby's odors. But think, Mr. Editor, 

 of such a bouquet, — a nosegay a yard or two in length, filled 

 with dahlias, marigolds, both scented, indeed, but by no 

 means perfutned, amaranths and zeranthemuns, for blossoms, 

 with a suflicient back-ground of greenery of various sorts and 

 kinds ! There are bouquets, to be sure, of gigantic propor- 

 tions, intended as centre ornaments for vases ; we like these ; 

 much genius and true taste can be displayed in forming them; 

 but we do object to those frame- work and pasteboard designs 

 which lean against the walls on either side of the hall, wherein 

 nothing is to be seen of art or invention, and the whole matter 

 lies in tying in place, or nailing to a flat surface. We by no 

 means would discourage enterprise or talent ; but let it have 

 its legitimate sphere. A florist should be a cultivator of 

 flowers ; he should learn how to present them to the eye, 

 with the best advantage and taste. He should learn how to 



