10 



INTRO D UCTION. 



of Elizabeth. The critic concludes his his- 

 torical summary with saying that "the fact so 

 long known in Europe was circulated as a 

 secret in Philadelphia in 1860 ! " 



But greater secrets in the arts and sciences 

 than the skeletonizing of a leaf, all exclusivel}' 

 of American origin, remain at this moment 

 wholly unknown to the countrymen of the 

 critic ; while the particular art in question, when 

 it had fairly attracted the notice of American 

 taste and ingenuity, has in the brief period of 

 five years received at American hands a more 

 perfectly artistic development than all England 

 was capable of accomplishing in two centuries. 

 Accident alone has kept us in ignorance of an 

 art distinguished only for its gracefulness ; but 

 the same accident keeps Europe profoundly 

 ignorant of a multitude of processes, of every- 

 day use with ns, which lighten and economize 

 human labor, and contribute largely, not only 

 to public and private comfort, but to national 

 w^ealth. 



Five years ago the first Phantom Bouquet 



