28 
Rustic Adornments . 
shades of green, the grouping may be rendered at once rich, varied, fresh, and 
pleasing. The experienced artist will at times use almost anything, and all 
will be right in the end; for the worst colours may be improved by skilful 
association, as the best may be made obnoxious by excess or in udicious 
combinations. Suppose it is winter time, and we cannot have fuchsias for the 
effect required. We can have the crimson tube of Thyrsacanthus rutilans 
instead, and in all nature we can scarcely find a better subject as a central 
object with pendant flowers of the best possible colour for artificial light. 
All roses of every kind look well at night. Pelargoniums of every kind are 
equally fortunate, for they do not offer us any blue or yellow tints that suffer 
change by artificial light. Speaking generally, orchids of all kinds are 
suitable ; sprigs of heath and epacris are admirable. Strange to say, the 
lovely mauve flowers of Justicia speciosa change to a rich bright crimson under 
gaslight, and some cinerarias of a mauve cast, especially if edged with white, 
come out well. As a rule, beware of blues and yellows of every shade, and 
of the colours into which they enter largely, as orange and purple, or your 
best daylight work may be poor indeed when placed beneath the treacherous 
gaslight. 
There is yet another matter of some importance. It is that the flowers are 
required to last some time ; if they fall to pieces before the feast is over, it is 
matter for regret, and may be evidence of defective work in the first instance. 
The subjects should so far as possible be selected, not only for their fitness as 
to form and colour, but as to capabilities of endurance. The lovely and 
delicate Spircea Japonica , which looks too frail for enduring the heat of a 
dining-room for an hour, will wear out the longest night and still look fresh. 
The stoutest leaves of caladium that can be found will begin to look flaccid, 
perhaps will actually shrivel, in an hour or two in a dry atmosphere. 
Perhaps as much depends upon the mode of setting up the flowers as upon 
their relative texture and powers of endurance. Those that have been care¬ 
fully cut with a knife will last longer than those the stems of which have 
been mangled by rude finger-nails, or even with scissors; for crushed vessels 
cannot take up moisture so effectually as those that have been cleanly severed. 
Something may be done, however, to assist the fragile candidates. Take a 
frond of maiden-hair fern ; dip it in water, gently shake it, so that it appears 
dry, and, whether placed with its stem in water or not, it will last out twice as 
long in a hot room as a frond from the very same plant that was not so 
dipped. There is no mystery in the matter. There is a certain amount of 
