ii2 Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris. 



Dracaenas ornamenting windows there, and as they look as well at 

 Christmas as at midsummer, I need hardly suggest how highly 

 suited they are for purposes of this kind. The number of Dracaenas 

 cultivated in and around Paris is something enormous, and among 

 the newer species of these not alluding to the coloured-leaved 

 kinds are some that combine grace with dignity, as no other 

 plants combine them. They are useful for the centres of noble 

 groups of plants in their larger forms, and the smaller species 

 n:ay be advantageously associated with the Maiden-hair Fern and 

 the Cinerarias of the conservatory bench. They are of the greatest 

 utility in these decorations, and are largely used in all parts. So 

 are most kinds of fine-leaved plants, from Phormium to Ficus. So 

 too are young Palms cultivated to an enormous extent about 

 Paris, and every green and gracefully-leaved plant from the Cycads 

 to the common trailing Ivy used a good deal to make living 

 screens of. With such plants they have but little trouble to find 

 materials for this kind of embellishment. The wide staircase ascend- 

 ing from this salle had also a charming array of plants so placed 

 that the visitors seemed to pass through a sort of floral grove fine- 

 leaved plants arching over but not rising very high, and having a 

 profusion of flowering things among and beneath them. As the 

 bank of Primulas and the groups of tall plants were placed opposite 

 this staircase, and reflected in the great mirror behind, the effect 

 when descending the staircase was fascinating indeed. A still 

 more noble effect was produced in a salle near the great dancing 

 saloon, and through which the invites passed to the magnificent 

 ball-room. Against each pillar in this saloon was placed a tall 

 palm with high and arching leaves as in Seaforthia elegans, and 

 others with longer leaves and pendulous leaflets. These meeting, 

 or almost meeting across, produced a very graceful and im- 

 posing effect, while around them were arranged other plants dis- 

 tinguished either by beauty of leaf or flower, and the groups at 

 each pillar connected by single rows of dwarf plants, closely placed, 

 however, and well mossed in, as in the case of the more important 

 groups. The very close placing of the plants is the peculiar part of 



