Floral Decoration of Jpartments in Paris. 1 1 1 



by a charming display of vegetation at one end; while on the right 

 and immediately in front of and around a large mirrored recess 

 was a very tasteful and telling display made as follows : — In front 

 of the large and high mirror stretched forth a bank of moss, com- 

 mon moss underneath, and the surface nicely formed of fresh green 

 Lycopodium denticulatum, the whole being dotted over with the 

 variously-tinted Chinese Primulas — a bank of these plants, in fact, 

 high enough in its back parts to be reflected in the mirror with the 

 taller plants which surrounded it, gradually falling to the floor, 

 and gradually merging into the groups of larger plants on either 

 side of the bank, the whole being enclosed by a low gilt wooden 

 treUis-work margin. Then the groups at each side contrasted 

 most beautifiiUy with this. Green predominated, but there was 

 a suflSciency of flower, while beauty of form was fully developed. 

 In the centre and back parts of these groups were tall specimens 

 of the common Sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) which 

 held their long and boldly arching leaves well over the group, 

 and these were supported by Palms, which threw their graceful lines 

 over the specimen Camellias, these being in their turn graced here 

 and there by the presence of a Dracaena or Dwarf Palm, and so down 

 to the front edge, where Cinerarias, forced bulbs. Primulas, and 

 Ferns finished off the groups, all very closely placed, so that neither 

 the lower part of the stems, nor a particle of any of the pots, could 

 be seen, any interstices that happened to remain between the bases 

 of the plants being compactly filled with fresh green moss, which 

 was also pressed against the little gQt trellis-work which enclosed 

 the whole, so that from the uppermost point of the Cane leaves to 

 the floor nothing was seen but fresh green leaves and graceful 

 forms, enshrouding the ordinary flowers of our greenhouses, which 

 are infinitely more attractive when thus set in the verdure of which 

 Nature is so profiase, and which is always so abundant where her 

 vegetable beauties are at their highest. 



A scene such as this explains the prevalence of these graceful 

 and noble-leaved plants in Paris gardens and in Parisian flower- 

 shops and windows, for you may frequently see graceful little 



