i6th March, A. D. 1893. 



ESSAY 



BT 



Mrs. E. M. GILL, of Medfokd. 



TJieme: — " The Arrangement of Cut Floivers, with Practical Illus- 

 trations." 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



I have been invited by a committee of your society to give a little 

 talk on the arrangement of cut flowers and to illustrate the same. I come 

 before you with considerable hesitancy, knowing that some of you are 

 practical florists and that the ladies of this society are artistic in their 

 floral arrangements, and because I am no essayist. Of the many ways 

 in which we can put flowers together, loosely or tied in a bunch, in a 

 flat or round bouquet, basket, vase or table design, I have chosen a 

 basket, which I will make later, as the most common and desirable 

 form, and which will answer the greatest number of decorative pur- 

 poses in our homes. Of the many designs used for funerals it will 

 not be necessary here to speak. Fashions in flowers, as in everything 

 else, are constantly changing. Twenty years ago a simple wooden 

 cross of the Roman form, painted white or covered with white paper, 

 over which was thrown a wreath of mixed flowers, generally made on 

 a string or wire, with flowers and vines around the base, and sus- 

 pended over it a dove with outstretched wings was thought to be 

 beautiful enough to decorate the altar on Easter morning, and to my 

 taste its simplicity is more appropriate than the huge clumps of palms 

 and pot plants placed together in solid masses that of late years I 

 have been accustomed to see. If you wish to make a lai-ge cross for 

 church use a wire frame filled with moss, into which put the large, 

 delicate, lavender-colored clematis, that grows around your piazza in 

 summer, and you will have a beautiful design. 



Wild flowers make an attractive vase or basket, but are best put by 

 themselves. If you have a large stand or bank of flowers to arrange 



