140 HOME AND GARDEN 



are always safe ; the fresh green of well-grown pots 

 of Maidenhair is delightful in any room, and they 

 have a look of modest and well-dressed refinement 

 that is always charming. A good supply should be 

 at hand, so that each individual may only be kept 

 for a few days in a heated room, and may be returned 

 to the moister heat of the stove before the tender 

 fronds are damaged by the warm, dry air of the 

 room. Pteris trermda is one of the very best and 

 handsomest of indoor Ferns and rather less impatient 

 of dry air. 



To come back to the cut flowers, it is important 

 to observe the way of growth of the flower in rela- 

 tion to the thing that is to hold it. The illustration 

 shows an attempt to carry out a simple arrangement 

 of boughs of Lilac in an old Italian jug of bluish- 

 white glazed earthenware. I tried to arrange the 

 stiff branches not only in good proportion to the 

 size and height of the jug, but also so that they 

 should shoot upwards in the way suggested by the 

 shallow flu tings of its upper part ; jug and flower being 

 also chosen to go together because of the tender 

 colour-harmony of the bluish glaze with the white 

 of the Lilac-bloom. 



In the case of the spray of Rose-Bramble {Ruhus 

 rosoefolius) shown at page 130, the far-leaning spray, 

 showing the natural grace of growth, needed some 

 weight to satisfy the eye in the matter of balance, 

 and the round black-glazed pot, of a black that 



