82 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
CHAPTER IX. 
FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
Both the early and semi-early garden sorts, as well as the 
decorative varieties in pots, lend themselves especially well 
for the purposes of indoor decoration in a cut state. This is 
an aspect of the question which is too frequently ignored, and 
as so much depends upon the proper disposition of the sprays 
and individual blooms a little advice respecting this matter 
may not be out of place. 
How to Cut the Flowers. — Sprays of the naturally- 
grown sorts obtained from plants in the open border are 
specially well adapted for large vases, and any large recep- 
tacle where a bold and handsome display is desired. They 
should always be cut with a good length of stem or foot stalk, 
and that the flowers may last as long as possible in a cut 
state, it is a good plan to largely denude the stem of its 
foliage, and also to split the stem at the bottom. By these 
means the flowers may be maintained in a fresh condition for 
several weeks, and if a portion of the stem be cut off from the 
bottom at intervals of a few days, and this, if possible, done 
while in the water, their period of freshness will be consider- 
ably lengthened thereby. That a graceful and elegant 
arrangement of flowers may be brought into effect, select 
sprays in which the buds are not too crowded. For this pur- 
pose, the clusters which are less densely flowered answer better, 
and those blooms of a starry kind certainly have a value which 
others, less attractive, do not possess. 
How to Arrange Them. — In arranging flowers in 
vases or bowls and other receptacles of a somewhat similar 
nature, their adjustment or disposition in the vases is so 
much more easily effected by having a wire netting fixed 
