December 22, 1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 555 
22nd 
Tn 
Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
23rd 
P 
Quekett Microscopical Club at 8 P.M. 
21th 
s 
Exhibition of Fruit and Plants, Alexandra Palace (fourteen 
25th 
SUN 
Christmas Day. 
[days). 
26th 
M 
Bank Holiday. 
27th 
TU 
28th 
W 
DINNER-TABLE DECORATION. 
AVING recently been much engaged in table 
decoration, and being out of practice, I at first 
sought for any remarks bearing on the subject 
that might have been written in this Journal 
or its contemporaries ; but eventually I had to 
rely upon my own invention. What resulted 
I propose briefly to relate. It may occur to some 
that the devices possess no marked originality or 
superior merit. Probably not, but they met with the 
approval of my employers, and might, if imitated, be 
equally as pleasing to other employers. That, after all, ought 
really to be the sole aim of gardeners. We are paid to gratify 
our employers’ tastes and not to indulge our own fancies, how¬ 
ever superior we may consider them, and I ask would-be critics 
to bear this in mind. 
Mr. Luckhurst has recently written m these pages on “ The 
Arrangement of Cut Flowers,” describing several tasteful 
arrangements ; but worthy of imitation as these undoubtedly 
are, they would not meet our case, simply because we have a 
different class of flowers and vases to deal with and different 
tastes to study. In the first place the dining-table here is a 
large one, the number of persons dining every night varying 
from fourteen to twenty, and, being also wide, central vases 
with flowers or plants were insufficient. Added to this the 
table was lighted entirely from silver branching candlesticks, 
and, as a coloured shade was disposed over each candle, tall 
March stands or light-foliage plants would be ineffective. The 
employment of a great variety of flowers was absolutely pro¬ 
hibited. This to some might appear questionable taste, but the 
result proved very effective nevertheless, and I should not again 
resort to a mixed arrangement were I at liberty to do so. 
Overcrowding had to be avoided, and brightness I soon dis¬ 
covered had to be aimed at. For instance, four flat oval¬ 
shaped tin troughs belonging to china vases, filled with the 
brightest Hawthorn berries and Rose heps, intermingled with 
the fertile fronds of Pteris cretica albo-lineata, and fringed 
with the shining rich green growths of Escallonia macrantha, 
disposed on the cloth between the dessert dishes, were con¬ 
sidered too dull ; and but for other flat dishes filled with 
Maidenhair Fern and white flowers, such as double Primulas, 
Begonias, double Prunus, Deutzias, Azaleas, and Bouvardias, 
and highly coloured plants of Dractena Cooperi in vases, the 
table would have been voted a failure. 
On another occasion when there were ten dishes of dessert 
and three candlesticks employed, on each side of the central 
and midway between the other two of the latter we stood a 
good specimen of the silver-variegated Pandanus Yeitchii. 
These were in 5-inch pots, placed on small plates, and good 
green moss (collected a day or two previous in order to remove 
the earthy smell and to admit of particles of earth and rubbish 
being readily separated), was banked from the cloth over the 
sides of the pots. In this were distributed a few plants of the 
small hardy wall Ferns Asplenium Trichomanes and Ceterach 
officinarum. Among these cut blooms of Pelargonium Guillon 
Mangilli were freely dotted, and next the cloth fronds of 
Maidenhair Fern were disposed. The dessert dishes were 
placed one at each end and four on each side, and between 
these last were alternated two Crotons angustifolius and three 
small flowering plants of Gesnera refulgens, these being turned 
out of their pots, the balls reduced, put into small plates, and 
banked over with moss and wall Ferns. The plants are not 
much injured by this rough treatment, and the only objection 
to this arrangement is the difficulty of working clean with the 
moss, as, unless arranged before the table is “ laid,” there is a 
possibility of rubbish dropping into the salt and glasses. To 
obviate this difficulty, however, we have had a number of half 
circular zinc troughs made, and in these next season we hope to 
have Selaginella Kraussiana well established. They can then 
be rapidly filled with flowers and easily arranged in circles or 
other forms. For the central plants our tinman has made 
circular trays, the central space of which is large enough to 
hold either a 5-inch or 6-inch pot, this being surrounded with 
a narrow trough. These can then be filled with plants, moss, 
and flowers, carried to the dining-room and placed in position. 
The first night we had these, two were filled as follows :— 
In the centre a good specimen in a 5-inch pot of the beautifully 
drooping golden Croton angustifolius, the pot mossed over, 
and at the base were disposed large fronds of Maidenhair 
Fern, next a ring of white Chrysanthemums, and above this 
large trusses of a beautiful pale rose Rhododendron, obtained 
by forcing. With these between the candlesticks we employed 
between the dishes of dessert small plants of narrow-leaved 
Dracaenas ferrea and nigro-rubra and flowering Pelargoniums 
in 3-inch pots. The pots were stood on Maidenhair Fern and 
covered with moss, in which were disposed a few yellow Chrys¬ 
anthemum blooms, which by candlelight really appeared to be 
white. On another occasion different plants were employed, 
and sprays of Jasminum nudiflorum were advantageously sub¬ 
stituted for the Chrysanthemums, and richly coloured leaves of 
Mahonia Aquifolium for the Fern fronds. Red Primulas would 
have been employed failing the more beautiful Rhododendron. 
These combination groups may strike critical readers as 
being rather heavy, and so they are, but not objectionally so ; 
at all events no complaints were made to that effect, quite the 
reverse being the case. After one of these “ heavy ” nights a 
“ silver ” night follows, and this admits of much of the care¬ 
fully preserved decorating material being again effectively em¬ 
ployed, and in a very different fashion. On these occasions 
silver is largely employed in the shape of two or four candle¬ 
sticks, a centrepiece, two cups and two oval-shaped receptacles 
flanking the centrepiece, in which to place dishes of flowers. 
The dessert dishes are also of silver, and taller than those in 
ordinary use. With the exception of the two vases, which in 
one instance were filled with Maidenhair Fern, white flowers 
and forced Lilac, and on another with white flowers and 
Euphorbia jacquinimflora, everything we employed was either 
laid on the cloth or very near to it. The centrepiece and cups 
standing on blocks of ebony were not surrounded, but the four 
NO. 78.—VOL. III., THIRD SERIES. 
No. I73i.— Yon. LXVI., Old Series. 
