January 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



35 



some extracts from a letter recently received from him may 

 be of interest to the lovers of this flower : 



" I first took up the Sweet Pea about fifteen years ago, col- 

 lecting' six of the most distinct varieties I could find, carefully 

 fertilizing the one with the other, year after year selecting the 

 most promising for recrossing, keeping in view properties most 

 desirable to develop — that is, color, form, substance and size. 

 At first progress was slow, but after seven or eight years' pa- 

 tient working, the varieties, some of whose praises you have 

 so well sung — Orange Prince, etc. — made their appearance. 

 When I first began working with the Sweet Pea, experts in the 

 nrl, as far as I could learn, had come to the conclusion that it 

 could not be further improved, and in the first two or three 

 generations of the work this appeared a fair conclusion. But 

 Iliad been for many years working on the improvement of 

 various fiorist flowers which had proved eminently successful, 

 and a first rebuff did notdeter me from further attempts. With 

 some of the results you are acquainted, and there are others 

 which, of course, can only be presented to the public as I can 

 get stock of them. It is a great satisfaction to know from all 

 parts of the world that the public appreciate my gems." 



Mr. Eckford's Sweet Peas have striking merit, and especially 

 the expansion of the Standard is making an essentially new 

 flower. The new varieties for 1892 show a still nearer approach 

 to lemon-yellow. „. ^ ,., 



Ellington. Conn. I^V. T. HutchttlS. 



Recent Publications. 



Japanese Art in the Arrangement of Flowers. — II. 



In the earlier styles of the art of flower-arrangement, Mr. 

 Conder tells us, the use of many different flowers in one com- 

 position was allowed. But this is opposed to the principles of 

 the purer styles afterward developed. " Combinations of two 

 or three different species are, however, very common, and 

 especially applied to vessels having two or three openings. 

 In all compositions, single or combined, the special nature of 

 the different materials employed is in each case carefully kept 

 in mind, and anything at all suggestive of the inappropriate 

 must be scrupulously avoided." We have already noted some 

 of the principles which govern these combinations; "but," 

 says Mr. Conder, "important distinctions are made between 

 trees and plants, and between land and water plants. The 

 locality of production, whether mountain, moor or river, con- 

 siderably influences the arrangement adopted. ... In arrang- 

 ing two or more species in one composition variety must be 

 secured by combining trees and plants. In the case of three 

 lines being used, the branches of a tree should never be sup- 

 ported on both sides by a herbaceous plant, nor should an 

 herb be placed in the centre with a tree-arrangement on 

 either side. This fault is called by a term which will be better 

 understood if freely translated as 'sandwiching.' In a triple 

 arrangement it is plain that two branches of the same kind of 

 growth must be used, but these must adjoin and not sand- 

 wich the remaining one. As an example of a defective ar- 

 rangement may be taken a composition with Irises (herba- 

 ceous) in the centre and branches of Azalea and Camellia 

 (trees) on either side. A correct composition would be one 

 with a Plum-branch in the centre with a Pine-branch on one 

 side and a Bamboo-stem on the other. . . . Herbaceous plants 

 are regarded as female with respect to trees, which are con- 

 sidered male because the former are weaker and more grace- 

 ful in character than the latter. A slender herb flanked on 

 either side, by tree-branches would give a weakness of effect 

 to the centre composition, and the reverse arrangement would 

 give too much strength to the centre and weakness to the 

 sides. In addition to this, such arrangements would have a 

 more or less symmetrical character, and symmetry is disliked 

 throughout the whole of the art under consideration. Like 

 most arbitrary rules, such directions were often departed 

 from by the more advanced professors, and there are even rec- 

 ognized exceptions which are universally admitted as correct. 

 For example, two kinds of Pine-branches may be used together 

 with the Plum-branch in a double arrangement. . . . The 

 branches and foliage of evergreens, and even of deciduous 

 trees, are much used in floral compositions, the arrangement 

 often being without a single blossom. It is, however, laid 

 down as a general rule that no flower-bearing plant is to be 

 employed with leaves only. Nor must plants or frees which 

 bear leaves at blossom-time be used with flowers alone. The 

 following are exceptions to this rule : the large-leaved Chinese 

 Orchid has a flower, but it is very insignificant and grows be- 

 low ; and this plant is, therefore, technically treated as a flow- 

 erless one. The Iris Japonica is sometimes arranged for its 



leaves only, before the flowers appear, and it then receives a 

 special name. The leaves of the Summer Narcissus are 

 faded and withered before the flowers appear, and they may 

 therefore be removed and discarded. All flower-compositions 

 mast partake as much as possible of the spirit of the season in 

 which they are used. Spring arrangements should be straight 

 and powerful in line, like the growth of early vegetation ; 

 summer arrangements must be full and spreading ; while 

 those of autumn should be spare and lean, and those of win- 

 ter withered and dreary." 



Flere again we see how diametrically opposed to western 

 ideas are the ideas of the Japanese. To us flowers are most 

 beautiful and most precious, as a rule, when most conspicu- 

 ously out of season ; and it is safe to say that a vase full of 

 Roses in midwinter gives the average American or European 

 more delight than it would in midsummer. To us the senti- 

 ment of a flower merely seems increased by the unexpected- 

 ness of its appearance, and one which in winter carries us back 

 to the sun and breezes of June would never be objected to on 

 the score of inappropriateness. In truth, we have no concep- 

 tion of what the Japanese mean by appropriateness, either in 

 this or in any other art; and when we try to understand their 

 point of view, it sometimes seems as though so many recon- 

 dite, philosophical and emblematical considerations preface 

 their enjoyment of the works of nature that this enjoyment 

 cannot be as fresh and spontaneous as it is with us. But such 

 ideas are, of course, quite mistaken. It is a question 

 whether we shall ever rise to such a many-sided, delicately 

 developed love for the works of nature as the Japanese pos- 

 sess ; but we may be sure that every added meaning they read 

 into their flower-arrangements increases, not lessens, the 

 pleasure they confer ; and that every added degree of keen- 

 ness and fineness in gesthetic perception has the same effect. 



Of course, color as well as form is considered by the Japa- 

 nese in their flower-arrangements, and also the shape and 

 character of the leaves, no less than the direction of the stems 

 which bear them. Moreover, the flower-vase is almost as 

 important as its contents, and the relationship of the two is a 

 special and complicated subject of study. There are V-shaped 

 vessels and broad ones, vessels for water-plants, flower- 

 baskets and Bamboo vases, hooked vessels, suspended vessels, 

 flower-chariots, and so on, and in each of these classes there 

 are many varieties, and the choice of each is dictated by the 

 special character of the plants employed or the special effect 

 desired in their combination. To secure plants in the exact 

 positions desired, from which a hair- breadth of deviation 

 would seem calamitous to a delicate eye, special flower-fasten- 

 ers are required, and these are often made of bronze and given 

 ornamental shapes appropriate to different kinds of plants. 

 Flower-trays and stands must also be carefully considered, as 

 the effect of a beautiful arrangement placed in an appropriate 

 vase might be ruined if it were set on an inappropriate sup- 

 port. Mr. Conder gives many pages of cuts shovving flower- 

 vases and stands with and without flowers. Their variety and 

 the subtile distinctions the Japanese draw between them may 

 confuse the occidental mind to such an extent that it will 

 seem, indeed, as though years of patient study would be need- 

 ful before one should dare to introduce a flower as decoration 

 in a room. Yet even this is not the end of the study of the 

 Japanese. The position of flowers in rooms is another vital 

 point of consideration, and one to which Mr. Conder devotes a 

 special chapter. Then he gives a long chapter to the cere- 

 monial uses of flowers and their significance in the elaborate 

 etiquette of the people. What, one wonders, would the guest 

 in an American house think if, as a special compliment, he 

 were invited to make an extemporary arrangement of flowers, 

 being presented for the purpose with certain suitable flower- 

 stems or blossom-clad branches and all the necessary utensils 

 and implements ? Special flowers are named for betrothals, 

 for wedding festivities, for coming-of-age celebrations, for 

 promotions in rank, for the ceremony of religious retirement, 

 for old-age celebrations, for farewell gatherings, for presenta- 

 tion to the sick, for death anniversaries, for house-warmings, 

 for duty ceremonials, for poetry meetings, for incense meet- 

 ings, for placing before houseliold shrines, for use when rain 

 or fine weather is prayed for, and for that favorite pastime of 

 the Japanese which they call moon-viewing. Nothing could 

 better explain the delicacy of the Japanese artistic sense than 

 Mr. Conder's little description of this last-named ceremony and 

 its floral accompaniment. "The more important dwellings," 

 he says, "have a special chamber with open galleries, from 

 which the sight of the moon-lit landscape can be enjoyed. The 

 floral arrangement occupies the recess of the chamber, and 

 has, of course, no real connection with the outside prospect, 

 but in the flower-composition itself the idea of the moon-lit 



