236 THE PEACH AND NECTAMNE. 



constantly diminiBhing in numbera nntil the pyramid is crowned with a 

 single fruit. Eleven or twelve fruits make a pretty dish — ^thus, six or 

 seven in the bottom layer, four in the next, and one on the top. The 

 effect is pretty if vine, peach, or other leaves are liberally used and 

 skilfully placed. And if the fruit are all eaten at once it matters little 

 how they are served. The pyramidal style also affords a good opportu- 

 nity for the setting of the colours with good effect in relation to each 

 other, as rose-coloured peaches like the Boyal George, to contrast 

 with the delicate cream or milk-coloured fruit of the Noblesse, &c. The 

 pyramid, however, at best is a stiff and formal style, and seriously 

 bmises the fruit and prevents it from keeping or being fairly presentable 

 a second time. Peaches served in single layer, each laid on and encircled 

 ,with a cushion of green moss or foliage, are less striking to the eye, but in 

 better taste and more easily selected. These flat arrangements of the 

 fruit have the additional merit of not bruising it. This latter is a point 

 of great moment in regard to such fruits as peaches, for not only do the 

 slightest bruises hinder the fruit from keeping, but they likewise lower 

 their quality at once. The bruising of the flesh immediately affects the 

 flavour. The advantages of so serving such fruits might readily be 

 secured by the using of silver, golden, glass, or china baskets, or flattish 

 vases filled with moss or leaves, so as to raise them considerably in the 

 centre. The peaches could be disposed in single layers, and would show 

 up with excellent effect. Single peaches, when extra fine, might also be 

 arranged in small dishes or baskets around the table, and such 

 dispositions of fruit in detail might occasionally at least take 

 -the place of the universal flower glasses, which are apt to 

 weary one by their monotony and endless repetition. What 

 more beautiful or pleasing than lines of single peaches, or groups 

 of four or five here and there, within easy reach of the diner ? The 

 forms and colours would show to good advantage on the white cloth and 

 against the usual ornaments of plate and flowers. Fruit ought, in fact, 

 to take a far higher place than it has yet done in the substantial decora- 

 tions of the diimer table ; flower and plant decoration have well-nigh 

 run to seed in dining rooms. Old-fashioned diners out are horrified on 

 sitting down, as they fondly hope, to dinner, to find instead the latest 

 ■example of carpet bedding — sub-tropical gardening — or bedding out, 

 cooled down by rocks of ice, as if the latest style of flower gardening 

 had lost its way amid the giddy mazes of fashionable caprice that 

 has ruined the repose of our lawns and terraces, and had stumbled 

 by accident on to the centre of the dining table. But by using 

 -fewer of such tawdry devices, and plants and flowers, and more fruits, 

 Tisitors would see before them a good dessert, though the dinner might 



