STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



buds and their young flower shoots) even to the fronds of maiden- 

 hair fern. Many of the silver-edged plants are pretty in themselves, 

 but they cannot well be mixed with other flowers if pure white flowers 



are used. 



Flowers for the hair, corsage or for the hand should be flowers of 

 delicate structure and exquisite fragrance. Those in the hand and 

 corsa<?e being under the close inspection of the eye, extra care should 

 be taken that there be no violent contrasts. As one plant needs 

 sunshine, another shade ; one requiring moisture, another dryness ; 

 no general rule can be given for their cultivation. One person pets 

 the sweet brier, another the heliotrope ; one will prefer the scent of 

 the lemon verbena, and another that of the sweet pea. That is well. 

 We would not like a stereotyped sameness in the arrangement of 

 flowers any more than we would in faces. 



Finally, to those seriously disposed to possess this elevating and 

 inspiring art, I would say, go to the fields and woodlands, by the 

 meandering brook and by the hill-side, collect these plants, one at a 

 time, from their native haunts, and study their habits and their needs 

 by cultivating them in your own garden. Draw them in black and 

 white, faithfully delineating each curvature and graceful outline, not 

 only the blossom but the whole plant. Next copy each hue and 

 shade, each tone and semitone, either in water colors or in oils. 

 Let no tint, however subtile, escape your eye, remembering "to take 

 care of the shadows, the lights will take care of themselves." And 

 lastly, I ask you to describe in your own words, not only the plant 

 botanically, but to discriminate between the velvety and the satiny 

 texture, the honeyed, trailing sweetness and the delicious, spicy odor, 

 the dawning of the bud and the decaying of the flower and all the 

 sweet loveliness and the fine fascinations until, in the glow of the 

 effort, every pore is open to the pleasurable sensations produced. 

 Then, and not till then, the flowers become like old-time loving 

 friends, and come into graceful harmonious arrangements, without a 

 thought of how it was accomplished. 



In the absence of the writer — who is a widely-known and success- 

 ful grower of the coleus and the originator of some of the finest va- 

 rieties of this grand bedding plant we have ever seen— the follow- 

 ing essay was read by her brother, President Pope, 



