Rooms, Halls, and Passages. 159 



the Royal Horticultural Society held at Birmingham in 

 June, 1872. The flowers used in the first prize arrange- 

 ment were white water-lilies, white sweet peas, blue 

 corn-flowers, white rodanthe, ferns, and wild grasses. 

 That of the second prize consisted of pink cactus 

 flowers, white water-lilies, pink and white rodanthe, 

 ferns, and grasses. The third prize consisted of white 

 water-lilies, white rodanthe, and oats. Many of the 

 vases to which do prizes were awarded contained 

 orchids and other choice and costly flowers." 



I may also notice another vase composed wholly of 

 wild flowers described by the same lady in the Sep- 

 tember number of 1874, " and to which was awarded 

 the first prize, in the class for wild flowers arranged 

 for effect, at the exhibition of the Tunbridge Wells 

 Horticultural Society held on July 3rd, 1874. The 

 vase itself resembled a Marchian one in form, and 

 each tazza and trumpet was filled with Dog-roses, blue 

 Forget-me-nots, brown-tinted sprays of Oak leaves, and 

 British ferns ; in each tier the flowers and foliage were 

 most charmingly intermixed. In addition to those just 

 named in the trumpet was placed a long trailing spray 

 of white Convolvulus, which drooped down and was 

 twined in a most graceful manner. This would make 

 a good centre-piece for the dinner-table as well as a 

 drawing-room vase." 



Dinner-table decorations, with cut flowers and fruit, 

 require great taste in their arrangement. They should 

 a Iways be fitted up in a light and elegant style ; nothing 

 stiff or clumsy should be allowed. I would advise you 

 to study Miss A. Hassard's articles on this subject in 



