CONSTRUCTION OF BOUQUETS, ETC. 219 



but, if placed in juxtaposition with larger flowers and 

 those of other forms, their beauty is heightened by con- 

 trast. It may be stated as a rule, that small flowers should 

 never be massed together. Large flowers with green 

 leaves or branches may be used to advantage alone, but a 

 judicious contrast of forms is most effective. 



Nothing is so strikingly beautiful on a refreshment 

 table as a handsome centre-piece of flowers. All the airy 

 castles of the confectioner are passed over by the eye, 

 which is at once arrested and refreshed by the brilliant 

 beauty of the products of the garden or conservatory ; 

 and we wonder how any person of taste, who possesses the 

 means, should ever fail to have flowers on the table when 

 entertaining friends. Considering the effect, flowers on the 

 table, like plants in the garden, are certainly the cheapest 

 of ornaments. There are those who would have nothing 

 upon their table but what they can eat or drink like 

 a gentleman who once employed the writer of this to 

 lay out a new garden, and objected to having roses 

 planted by the fences, saying very earnestly : " Ah, yes ! 

 I suppose they are very pretty ; but then, you see, we 

 couldn't get anything to eat from them. Guess we 

 won't have any of them things." Luckily for the well- 

 being of poor humanity such desperately practical men 

 are not very numerous. An epergne filled with flowers 

 forms the most effective of table bouquets. For a large 

 dinner table this bouquet holder ought to be from two to 

 three feet in height, with three, four, or five branches ; 

 and, if the table is very large, a small epergne at each 

 end will add to the effect. For a less pretentious table 

 an epergne twelve to eighteen inches in height may be 

 used to equal advantage. The superiority of an epergne 

 consists in its raising the flowers to a height sufficient to 

 gain their full effect, whereas forms of flowers built from 

 a lower vase lose much by the interference of surround- 

 ing dishes. With a handsome epergne and the flowers 



