623 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



materials correspondent in value thereto. I recollect some years ag-o 

 seeing some pictures exhibited in this city which were made of tufted 

 wool dyed of the necessary and suitable colors to render them, not copies, 

 out representations of some of the noble paintings of the old masters. 

 They had cost the artist, if such he could be railed, an infinity of labor and 

 manual skill, and yet for all that they were not pictures, they were simply 

 tufted wool dyed and skillfully arranged. So, too, you may see disgracing 

 our park a statue cut in red sandstone, which no doubt cost the workman 

 who made it much manual labor, but it is not a statue, it is an effigy, and 

 would be so if it had been cut by Powers or Crawford. I have often seen 

 at our fairs and exhibitions premiums oifered or given for bouquets of wild 

 flowers, and have never yet seen an instance of an elegant bouquet or 

 design made of such materials. There is among plants as among all other 

 forms of created objects a certain nobility oi- aristocracy of class. Some 

 are created no doubt simply to provide for the sustenance or similar needs 

 of mankind, for others we can find no other use, but that a noble use, to 

 please the eye or gratify the olfactory sense of men, or looking further 

 they may be the gems which the Creator has employed to decorate his foot- 

 stool withal. 



Therefore, eschew all the sentimentalities and poetry so called of the 

 woodland and forest, for while they are all proper enough in their place 

 they are not suitable for the object we have in view; and if a beautiful 

 thought or design suggests itself to your mind, work it out in the best 

 flowers you can procure. Let them be cultivated flowers, suggestive of 

 care and skill in their production, and suggesting also the sacrificing of 

 the material for the intellectual. 



Fitness of purpose is another principle which must be attended to in 

 floral decorations. As such decorations are used on so many various occa- 

 sions, each having a more or less remote significance, it is necessary to 

 carefully avoid incongruity of purpose. A design intended for a festive 

 board, when its elegance or beauty would be suggestive of the most joyous 

 emotions, would be out of place at the funeral of a friend, as its tendency 

 would be to attract attention to itself and away from the considerations 

 suggested by the mournful occasion. At a funeral the flowers should be 

 subdued in color, should be arranged in a more careless and unartful way 

 than on other occasions. They should simply be accessories to the occa- 

 sion, not prominent features of it; should be suggestive of affectionate 

 regard, and be a simple token of our love and esteem for the deceased. 

 Elaborately wrought designs of anchors, harps, crosses, &c., are not to be 

 tolerated. They are simply impertinent displays of vulgarity varnished 

 over with a sickly sentimentality. Simple wreaths, as for instance of 

 lamarque or safrano rose buds with their own foliage, are not only elegant, 

 but appeal to our better feelings through their simplicity. Aside fronr 

 these bouquets of choice and fragrant flowers, such as we would ofier to the 

 deceased if in life are appropriate. Convenience requires that they should 

 be made flat if to be laid on the coffin. 



It is the custom among us to decorate the fonts and chancels of our 

 churches on Easter Sunday, in commemoration of the resurrection of our 

 Saviour, and ignorant fashion requires that the flowers used should be 



