566 
THE ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS IN BOUQUETS. 
required simplicity of tlie general effect. Tin's 
is a most important quality, for it depends 
upon the general effect of an object, whether 
it shall command attention or whether it is 
doomed to be passed by unnoticed. Practi- 
cally considered (especially with reference to 
our present purpose), "breadth" has the most 
obvious and most important relations with 
light. Our first object, then, in the " compo- 
sition" of our bouquet must be to secure a 
sufficient breadth or mass of light ; but with 
this we must have variety also — variety in 
the tints of the component parts, and variety 
in the outline of the general form ; but in 
aiming at variety, we must be aware of 
" spottiness" and confusion, as qualities de- 
structive of breadth. 
Having secured an agreeable mass of at- 
tractive light, we must next attend to what 
we may call our " middle tints " and " tones." 
It is in them chiefly that the beauty of our 
colouring materials is to be found ; and as 
light is always subdued by the presence of 
colour, it is here that we may most safely 
luxuriate, and those who possess that not very 
common faculty, " feeling for colour," may let 
their feeling satisfy itself. Then come our 
deep " tones " even to the full depth of our 
colouring materials whether " hot or ccld," 
and it is with these that our rich green foli- 
age should have its most immediate relations. 
This mention of foliage reminds us that those 
beautiful pale, cool greys, such as are seen in 
the " grass " of pinks and carnations, enter 
agreeably into composition with such light 
tints as those of the blush rose, or more 
sweetly still with the rich creamy white of 
the gardenia, &c. 
Although we have divided the considera- 
tion of our " composition " or arrangement 
into three, viz. light, middle tone, and dark ; 
the result we aim at is " oneness," and that, 
be it remembered, with the utmost possible 
degree of variety — variety of a kind, more- 
over, which may fairly be considered infinite 
by reason of its suggestiveness. (That word 
suggestiveness is the key to the secret spell 
with which men's minds are bound by certain 
works of art. Turner works with it more 
perfectly, and therefore more potently, than 
any who ever dealt in the magic of art.) As 
with colour so also must it be with form, both 
must be so managed that the result shall be 
equally remote from formality and confused- 
ness. 
In order to connect, reconcile, and balance, 
separated and opposed masses of hot and cold 
colour, or of light and dark, we may take a 
portion from each and transpose them. But 
in this, as in all cases of artistic arrangement, 
we must bear in mind that equal quantities 
are ever to be avoided. In fine art it is by 
no means necessary .that things should be of 
the same size, in order to their balancing each 
other. We must use the steelyard rather 
than the scales, for a small thing may make 
up for its want of quantity not only by its 
relative intensity of colour or light, but by 
its position also ; gaining in value in propor- 
tion as it is farther removed from the mass 
which it is intended to influence. It becomes 
attractive by isolation. 
There is another point which we must by 
no means overlook — we require not only at- 
tractive masses and breadth or " unity," but 
centres or foci of attraction. By the word 
" centre," however, neither the middle of our 
composition nor even of the masses of light or 
dark is intended, for in these and many other 
respects genius and right feeling have almost 
boundless liberty. But there should be a 
point or climax somewhere, in which the ex- 
treme power of our means and materials is 
concentrated. Let us, for instance, suppose 
that we have the whitest possible of white 
flowers as the strongest point of our mass of 
light. It may be thought that having ex- 
hausted the light side of our "palette" we 
have done our utmost — not quite, for we shall 
find that by opposing a small quantity of dark 
to our extreme light we greatly enhance its 
brilliancy — we obtain vivacity — we do in fact 
what nature does in the way of animation to 
the countenance by means of the piquant 
opposition of light and dark in the eye. On 
the same principle may the value of masses of 
colour also be either enhanced or reduced at 
pleasure. For instance, nothing is gained by 
opposing a mass of vivid orange to a like 
mass of brilliant blue. The result is simply 
a conflict between the two colours, perplexing 
and painful to the eye ; for although the 
orange is rendered more positively intense by 
being opposed to blue, the blue is in the same 
proportion intensified by the influence of the 
orange. Notwithstanding this, blue is the 
right colour to use for the purpose of enhanc- 
ing the power and value of orange, and vice 
versa. A good colourist, whether painter or 
bouquetier, exemplifies this knowledge or feel- 
ing either by throwing the enhancing colour 
into shadow, or by the employment of mate- 
rials in wdiich the power of colour is subdued 
by neutral tones equivalent to shadow, which 
tones are commonly denominated shades of co- 
lour, in contradistinction to tints. It moreover 
obviously follows, from what we have said 
with regard to conflicting colours, that when- 
ever a mass of colour is too preponderant, it 
may be dealt with by introducing in another 
part of the composition a portion of counter- 
acting colour, taking care, however, that its 
mass be duly proportioned to the degree of 
influence it is required to exert. 
