Flowers and Gardens 



Lastly, we come to the arrangement of 

 flowers after they have been cut. Of course, 

 all arrangements are bad which destroy the 

 general character and expression of a flower 

 for the sake of some particular quality. 

 Many people seem to think that they have 

 nothing to do but to place flowers so that 

 their colours will look nice. We often see 

 little nosegays with Fuchsia bells pulled 

 off and stuck in upright — that is to say, 

 upside downwards. Now any one who 

 really cares about Fuchsias cannot help 

 being annoyed at this. His eye necess- 

 arily rests upon the long, unmeaning stigma 

 — unmeaning now, but so beautiful in its 

 natural posture, where it carries off the 

 flower-droop, and prevents it from being 

 cut off too suddenly and abruptly by the 

 straight wide margin of the cup. But the 

 arranger heeds nothing of this. He has 

 the colour he requires — for I suppose him 

 to have an eye for colour — and that is 

 sufficient. I have seen people do just the 

 same with the splendid blossom of the 

 Horse Chestnut. When that tree comes 

 into flower, there is often a very sudden 

 curve in the shoots of the lower branches, 

 which makes it extremely difficult to fix 

 the shoot in water, without either tilting 

 the end of the stalk out of the water, or 



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