38 



Garden and Forest. 



January 22, 1890. 



own premises, when it is certain to pass beyond his con- 

 trol, and destroy the property of his neighbors. And yet 

 brush fires are usually set in times of drought, and very 

 often under circumstances which render extensive injury 

 almost certain. Dwellings and other farm buildings, with 

 crops and stock, are often consumed by a fire which was 

 started to burn a little rubbish ; and although the burning 

 of a house attracts more attention, it causes far less loss 

 than that which results from the destruction of extensive 

 tracts of forest or woodland. It is impossible for men to 

 live together in civilized society unless they recognize the 

 necessity of submitting to a little control in the interest of 

 the whole community. Necessary restraints and orderly 

 methods are a benefit to all, and as an increasing number 

 comes to be affected by the action of each individual, the 

 sense of personal responsibility should be developed so as 

 to correspond with the more complex conditions of life. 

 The present inconsiderate and lawless method of setting 

 brush fires is a constant menace to the whole community 

 wherever it is practiced. Values to the extent of many 

 millions of dollars are destroyed every year in this country 

 by the fires thus started. Freedom is but one side of life 

 in civilized lands. Order and law are quite as necessary, 

 and they subserve the interests of all. We need in this 

 country a clearer recognition of responsibility for actions 

 which are injurious to others. Want of intention to injure 

 should not excuse carelessness and indifference. Every 

 state should have on its statute books a brief and plain 

 enactment providing for a practical and effective super- 

 vision of the matter of firing brush, prescribing the time and 

 conditions for work of this kind, the method by which the 

 law is to be enforced, and the penalties for its violation. 

 Such a law is a matter of great convenience, as well as of 

 economy, in every orderly community, because it enables 

 the citizens to co-operate with each other for their own 

 protection and for the safety of all ; and legislation for this 

 object is especially necessary in those states which include 

 considerable areas of forest. 



The Decorative Use of Flowers. 

 T N the decorative use of flowers the two qualities of color 

 ■*■ and form (or mass) are both to be considered. The first ap- 

 peals much more strongly to the ordinary sense of beauty 

 and the domestic side of life; but the elegance of certain plant- 

 forms is fully recognized and is instinctively used in the deco- 

 ration of large interiors, especially of those which have at least 

 a semi-public character. The statuesque growth of the Palm 

 and the delicate arches formed by the spring of tropical Ferns 

 are essentially in harmony with architectural surroundings, 

 and it is a genuine artistic instinct that has, in a manner, dedi- 

 cated them to the decoration of churches and large halls. In- 

 deed, it is an instinctive sense of fitness which has prescribed 

 the unwritten law that form shall be chiefly depended upon in 

 the decoration of interiors of architectural dignity, and color in 

 the decoration of the home. 



Beautiful combinations of color are more generally felt and 

 accomplished than beautiful combinations of form, because 

 the appreciation of form depends upon a much more culti- 

 vated intelligence. It is thoroughly understood in Japan. 

 Any thoughtful observer of Japanese art has noticed— especi- 

 ally in the relief decoration of bronzes — that flowers and 

 plants are used absolutely as models, not as mere themes, for 

 decorative designs. Each flower is used singly, at its best 

 and most perfect development of form ; and the jar or vase 

 which holds it is selected to carry out the beauty of its lines. 

 This beauty of line which is so effective when applied to 

 ornament is even more effective in nature and can be made 

 to tell with great success in its relation to the decorative 

 grouping of flowers even in the home. Decorative grouping 

 may include the best possible effects of both form 

 and color, and it is for this combination that the true lover of 

 beauty will strive. Anyone with a good memory for color ef- 

 fects, enriched by many a lovely result of accidental grouping 

 — and possessing also that instinct to select among such les- 

 sons which we call taste — is well equipped for using flowers 

 for decoration. These memories of successes in time become 

 principles, so that one comes to use contrasts and combina- 

 tions in flower tints as unerringly and unhesitatingly as a true 

 artist blends or opposes colors upon his canvas. 



In the decoration of a room, as a rule, all masses of delicate 

 color should be arranged or placed in strong lights. If for a 

 daylight effect, they should be placed nearest the windows, 

 where no dense shadow will blot out both form and tint. 

 White flowers are best when placed in immediate contrast 

 with a color which reflects, as in this way the white really gets 

 the value of gradation of tint. 



Each flower should be able to detach itself from the mass, 

 so as to give shape as well as color. This applies principally 

 to flat masses or banks of flowers which may be most artis- 

 tically arranged as to color and yet lose immensely in effect if 

 the flower-heads are not allowed to spring, as they would in 

 nature, against some background of foliage or atmosphere. 



In all masses or groups of flowers, the best effects of color 

 are made by shading and gradation, using the same variety 

 of flower in different colorings, white warming into rose and 

 rose into carmine, or pale lemon-color deepening into yellow, 

 yellow into orange and orange into sienna or Damascus red, 

 Blues on blues, lilac-purples on blue-purples: these are har- 

 monies with which every flower-lover is familiar, but their ef- 

 fect can be wonderfully intensified by contrasting them with 

 each other, or by different considerations of background 

 and surrounding. A careful leading up of color in the jar or 

 vase which holds the group is of great importance; choos- 

 ing one which has the same general tone as the flowers 

 but darker, and repeating the color again, but in a 

 lighter tone, in some drapery or other object in the back- 

 ground. To illustrate this, suppose a jar of blood-red Tulips 

 splashed and spotted with red, placed in some shadowy 

 corner of a room, where a brilliant effect is needed. They 

 should stand on a level with the eye, upon a shelf or piece of 

 furniture which is itself dark in color. The jar or vase — which 

 should be rather large in proportion to the mass of flowers — 

 may be of wine-red or liver-colored lustre, or of the red De 

 Morgan lustre showing orange flakes of light from its re- 

 flections of the Tulips. The mere added bulk of color is a 

 gain from the decorative point of view, while the repetition of 

 it in a reflecting surface is still another point gained, this glit- 

 ter giving value to the flesh-like quality of the flowers, if 

 something in drapery, in tones of reddish-ochre or pure yel- 

 low, can be drawn in folds behind both jar and flowers, and 

 can fall in long lines below them, the largeness and breadth 

 of effect is still further increased. One can see at a glance 

 how much greater the decorative effect produced by this treat- 

 ment would be than could possibly be obtained by all these 

 things separately used. 



Jars of metal — brass, copper and silver — are universally 

 appropriate to the decorative placing of flowers, and this 

 because of their reflecting quality, which repeats any color 

 massed above them. But the inherent color in metal is 

 more valuable for its contrasts than for its repetitions. Blue 

 flowers in a bowl of burnished brass, with brown-gold draper- 

 ies behind and beneath them, are a joy forever ; and any one 

 who has ever arranged a group of pink Orchids in a classic 

 silver vase, reflecting all their elegance of form and changing 

 beauty of color from the mirror-like breadth of a salver placed 

 below them, will not soon forget the lustrous pearl-like quality 

 of their beauty. Such an arrangement finds its proper envi- 

 ronment in a white drawing-room or upon the satiny linen of 

 a dinner-table. 



As an illustration of the value of appropriate color and place 

 in the surroundings of flowers, imagine how unlovely this 

 classic vase, with its pink and pearly Orchids, might be if 

 placed against a deep, India-blue curtain, in some dark library 

 or sitting-room. All its delicacy and elegance would be worse 

 than lost — they would count against it as a decorative effect. 

 In such a room one should draw the heavy curtains partly 

 away from the window, and, half against the curtain and half 

 against the light, place a great round brass jar crowded full of 

 bright blue Larkspur, or single Hyacinth, or Canterbury Bell, 

 or any other strong, pure-blue flower. Or one might stand a 

 tall, cloudy-blue porcelain vase against the light, in the middle 

 of the window, fill it with stalks of blue Fleur-de-lis and spiky 

 blue-green leaves, and get an effect like a panel of stained 

 glass. 



Solid color is always an advantage in a flower-holder, and 

 few things are more effective than the clay colors — the reds 

 and browns and ochres, and, more than all, the greens one 

 sometimes finds in Spanish and Indian water-jars. All flowers 

 are beautiful in green jars, and it is a pity that they are not 

 more easily procurable, or that they are not attempted in some 

 of our potteries. In fact, large, well shaped and well colored 

 jars, of coarse and cheap clay, are greatly needed in the decor- 

 ative market. Rich brown, two-handled cooking jars come 

 as near the sort of thing needed as can easily be procured, 



