GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS 



ers, like the iris and the chrysanthemum, have qnite 

 straight stems, people have to learn how to bend 

 them without breaking. Each flower is studied, se- 

 lected for its place in this triangle, and then, oh! 

 so very delicately, shaped to the desired line. 



And then as so few flowers would be apt to slip 

 around, they skilfully hold them in place by means 

 of slender sticks, cut the exact size, split at one end, 

 and then sprung into place across the vase or bowl. 



If the stems curve to one side, it is called the 

 male style, if to the other, the female style; the 

 arrangement must look not like cut flowers, but 

 like the living plant, and suggest the growth by 

 the use of buds, open flowers and withered leaves. 

 Good and evil luck are connected with the placing, 

 as well as with the colors and the numbers chosen, — 

 even numbers and red being ill-omened. Certain 

 arrangements also suggest the seasons, one style, 

 for instance, representing spring and another au- 

 tumn. "While we today are not interested in Japan- 

 ese symbolism, we, many of us, are quite interested 

 in Japanese methods on account of their artistic 

 effects. 



Many books have been written by the Japanese 

 on their favorite subject, — some as far back as the 

 Thirteenth Century! Of course you never could 

 read them even if you could find them here ; but a 



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