12 
Rustic Adornments . 
same simple way any short-jointed flowers may be preserved for a considerable 
time; the partial shade and the confinement of moisture secured to them by 
the glass, preserve their beauty and fragrance, sometimes even for a fortnight, but 
the most fragile will in this way continue fresh and beautiful for at least a week. 
But we must not ignore the vase and basket of flowers, and so for a 
moment let us consider how best to deal with them. Directions for filling vases 
might be multiplied beyond all possibility of usefulness, and perhaps we 
should be brief rather than prolix on the subject, for just this reason, that 
people must fill them with what they can get, and frequently the hand of taste 
is paralyzed by the scarcity of subjects for its exercise. The common fault 
of flowers in vases is that they are “bunched” like greens: too much is 
thought of colour and too little of form: too much is thought of flowers and 
too little of leaves. As to the flowers, much positive colour is not desirable; 
intense yellow is a dangerous element, a soft mixture will usually gratify an 
educated eye far more than a dashing display of primary colours unrelieved 
by secondaries*or by green leaves. Strong colours are not objectionable, for 
in truth we need them to light up the whole and give it character; but you 
will soon see that the line must be drawn somewhere by filling a vessel with 
the brightest scarlet geraniums only, without a single leaf to tone down the 
glare. It is very important to make proper distinction between flowers that 
retain their character, or at least look pleasing by artificial light, for some of 
the best daylight flowers are but poor things when daylight has fled, and the 
flame of gas or oil has become the substitute. Nearly all flowers in which 
there is a notable proportion of blue are unattractive when seen under 
artificial light. Hence purple and lilac flowers do not usually look well at 
night, though there are exceptions owing to the intensity of the red in some 
purples, which comes out well at night and causes them to appear as 
crimsons. Yellows invariably lose brilliancy, and pale yellows become bad 
whites under gaslight, but reds and crimsons, all shades of pink and white 
retain their beauty, and, as a rule, green leaves are pleasing under any light; 
the introduction of electric light, however, obviates this difficulty; for, where 
this is used, everything keeps almost its natural hue. 
As to the leaves, it scarcely matters what they are while they simply supply 
the filling up or foundation—green showing to advantage, even if obscurely, 
under the chaste lacing of many coloured flowers. But wherever a leaf 
appears as a leaf, we must have grace as well as greenness, and happily the 
poorest garden will supply abundant material, especially in the form of fern 
