628 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



it is a cold, unimpassioned flower; but when combined with its rich, glossy 

 foliage, with its acute termination, it produces a magnificent effect, through 

 the beautiful play of light reflected from its leaves, and the contrast of 

 their noble curved lines and their yet harmonious substance with the regu- 

 lar, dull, wax-work appearance of the flower. 



Bouquets for the hand should bo of the choicest flowers gracefully 

 arranged ; heavy solid flowers, or massive arrangement should be as much 

 as possible avoided. Such bouquets are necessarily brought under the 

 closest inspection of the eye, and should be composed of flowers of delicate 

 structure, or great rarity, or exquisite fragrance. The present style of 

 immense size, composed of solid flowers, scarcely if at all relieved by 

 foliage, issonly suggestive of some enormous variegated or pied fungus, 

 hung with silk fringe, or put up in lace paper. I have often noticed at 

 evening entertainments, that they literally became a burden to their fair 

 possessors. For successful effect in floral decoration, much depends upon 

 the judicious arrangement of color; violent contrasts are especially to be 

 avoided, as is also the sameness, produced by having too much of one color. 



In producing harmonious contrast of colors, it should be remembered that 

 there are only three primitive colors, red, blue and yellow, from these arise 

 what are called binary or secondary colors, namely, orange composed of 

 yellow and red, purple composed of blue and red, and green composed of 

 yellow and blue, these form contrasting colors to the primary three with 

 which they are in harmonious opposition, as the orange with blue, purple 

 with yellow and green with red. From the combination of these seconda- 

 ries arise three tertiary colors, olive from purple and green, citron from 

 green and orange, and russet from orange and purple. These tertiary colors 

 harmonize with the primitives, as they stand in the relation of neutral 

 tints to them, but are in harmonious opposition to the secondaries from 

 which they were combined. Red, blue and yellow, harmonize with each 

 other and may be placed in juxtaposition, but purple should not be placed 

 near red or blue, as it is composed of those two colors ; for the same reason 

 orange should not be placed next to yellow or red, or green next to yellow 

 or blue. The rule being that no primary color should be brought in con- 

 tact with a secondary color of which it is itself a component part, nor any 

 secondary color brought in contact with a tertiary color of which it is a 

 component part. Another rule is that the secondary and tertiary and the 

 neutral hues arising from the tertiaries, such as brown, maroon, puce, slate, 

 lavender, &c., should be used in the greatest quantities, and the primaries 

 used in smaller quantity for heightening the effect. If you lack the proper 

 shades for producing the necessary harmonies and find that two colors do 

 not harmonize well, separate them by some white flower. Again, you 

 should always place your brightest color in the centre of your design, and 

 gradually decrease the intensity of the tints as you approach the exterior. 

 This was the almost invariable practice of Van Huysen, so celebrated as a 

 painter of flowers ; he was also in the habit of using but one prevailing 

 color, so as to avoid spottiness or patchiness in his groups. 



But, Mr. President, I fear that I trespass on j'our time and patience, and 

 will therefore conclude my remarks. I trust that we shall see at our exhi- 

 bitions specimens of the taste of our lady amateurs, especially in floral deco- 



