1893.] ESSAYS. 117 



the wild roadside clematis is however a very desirable addition to 

 other trailing vines. As we discriminate in drawing friends together 

 for a party or social meeting, so must we choose in putting kinds of 

 flowers together. Very large and very small ones do not look well 

 together. This must be taken with a grain of salt as we say, and I 

 do not state it as an absolute rule. Sometimes the color of one will 

 not look well with another color. This difficulty can be nicely over- 

 come by placing plenty of green and white between. The trouble 

 with a great many that we might call old-fashioned bouquets was, 

 that the flowers were crowded and pushed together, one close upon 

 another, without green enough. One well-known gentleman of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society holds that all colors, tints and 

 shades can be used together, and himself arranges a beautiful basket. 

 Others fail to produce a pleasing result if too great a variety is at 

 hand. The effect produced in the arrangement of flowers, as with 

 the oils to paint a picture, depends many times more upon the taste of 

 the florist or painter than the supply at hand. Sometimes it is best 

 to have one prevailing color, say red or pink. Ribbon is much used 

 now, and a bow on a basket, or bow and ends around a bunch of 

 mixed flowers, or of roses or of pinks alone, seems admissable and if 

 the latter is to be carried in the hand, it certainly gives a pretty effect 

 to a lady's toilet. How we shall arrange flowers depends upon the 

 place where we are to put them. Whether high up on a mantel or 

 low on the floor. Whether we look up to them or down upon them. 

 I do not think a mantel should be too heavily loaded with flowers or 

 a glass hidden from view by them. We should make our work an 

 adornment, not a misplacing of something else. Short-stemmed 

 flowers can be used in a basket or frame filled with moss, but for a 

 vase we need long stems. In both cases the flowers must be wired 

 to stand well. A vase is much harder to arrange than a basket. 

 It stands higher and is thus more conspicuous, and any defect in the 

 symmetry of arrangement is quickly noticed. Even with choice 

 flowers one may only succeed in making a failure, so to speak. The 

 spring bulbs grown in the garden and also forced in the greenhouse, 

 when cut, appear to best advantage loosely put in a vase or bowl. A 

 few might be used in a vase or basket with other flowers. A flat bas- 

 ket of all yellow tulips or of daffys is especially appropriate for a 

 golden wedding or yellow spread, the color being so much deeper and 

 richer than in roses of that hue. The flowers, too, of fall, large in 

 size and gorgeous in color, zinuias, marigolds, helianthus, salvia and 

 dahlias, as cut flowers give the best effect when used in separate 



