970 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Fig. 1. 
Flowers in the House—How to Keep 
Bouquets—Table Decorations. 
Beauty need not cost money. Mr. Broadacre’s 
fine pictures in gilt frames, for which he paid 
thousands of dollars, can not compare for skill 
or elegance with a bouquet gathered from the 
Widow Small’s garden; and the most beauti¬ 
ful sculptures are put to shame by the delicate 
tracery of a wild flower. When it is so easy to 
gratify and cultivate the love of the beautiful, it 
amounts to a positive duty. A man or a woman 
has no right to grow up coarse when the Crea¬ 
tor has surrounded him or her with refining in¬ 
fluences. We never see a man with a nosegay, 
or a single rosebud in his buttonhole without 
thinking better of him; it is like the gleam of 
light through a crevice, that tells of warmth and 
good cheer within. This part of the subject is 
tempting to the pen, but limited space compels 
us to come at once to the practical. First then, 
through the season of flowers use them as orna¬ 
ments of the dwelling. Keep a fresh bouquet 
in the living room, for your own gratification, 
and if flowers are plenty, in the parlor for the 
pleasure of occasional visitors. 
To renew the flowers daily, is quite a tax on 
a small garden, which ought not to be entirely 
despoiled, for beauty is wanted around as well as 
in the dwelling. By a little management, cut 
flowers may be kept fresh several days. The 
cause of wilting, is loss of the water which fills 
the tissues of the leaves. Evaporation goes on 
a? raoidly as firm- the growing plant, and there 
being no roots to supply 
the loss, the petals and 
other organs soon shrivel. 
This is partly remedied by 
placing the stems in water, 
but to prolong the period 
of preservation, it is neces¬ 
sary to hinder the evapora¬ 
tion from the plant. This 
can be done very readily 
by setting the vessel con¬ 
taining the flowers on a 
plate or pan containing a 
little water, and inverting 
a bell glass or jar over the 
bouquet. Water enough 
should be kept in the plate, 
to rise above the edge of 
the bell-glass. With this 
arrangement, as shown in 
Fig. 2, the external air 
is excluded, and the air 
within the bell-glass soon 
becomes saturated with 
moisture, so that evapora¬ 
tion from the flowers is pre¬ 
vented, and they remain 
plump and firm until chem¬ 
ical changes cause decay. 
It is often desirable to 
carry or send flowers to 
a distance, but they give little satisfaction if 
they arrive faded and wilted. They are often 
surrounded with moss, cotton, or soft paper, or 
a handkerchief is tied over the bunch to preserve 
them from injury. Such treatment only in¬ 
creases the difficulty. The covering of cotton, 
etc., readily absorbs the moisture of plants, and 
they must droop. If to be carried far, let them 
not be made into a bouquet but laid loosely 
in a box with a tight fitting cover. Wood is bet¬ 
ter than paper, as it absorbs moisture less read¬ 
ily. Line the box with folds of wet flannel, or 
paper, or place in it a sponge saturated with 
water. In absence of any thing better, throw 
in some fresh succulent leaves, or even grass, 
which will give off moisture and partly prevent 
evaporation from the flowers. For botanists or 
others who wish to preserve specimens from 
wilting, an excellent article is a bag of India 
rubber cloth, made like a traveling bag, or so 
that the mouth can be closed tightly, which will 
ensure the desirable moist atmosphere. 
Flowers are nowhere more beautiful than 
when used as decorations for the table. Eating 
and drinking are purely animal exercises, and 
the pleasures they bring are lowest in the scale 
of enjoyments. We should seek to surround 
[ijpEPTEMBKK. 
them with refining influences that shall minis¬ 
ter to the better nature, and keep us up to our 
proper level: and what can be better fitted than 
flowers to recall the thoughts from groveling 
associations with meats and drinks? These 
Fig. 4. 
ideas are appreciated and acted upon among the 
cultivated of every country. Flowers mingled 
with fruits as table decorations, are found at all 
great entertainments. Why should they not 
form a staple at our meals? It is pleasing to 
know that taste in this direction is being encour¬ 
aged and guided to the right channel. In Eng¬ 
land the subject has been thought worthy the 
action of the Royal Horticultural Society. Prizes 
have been offered and awarded for table deco¬ 
rations. The accompanying engravings, Figs. 
1, 3, 4, are specimens of the designs of this kind 
which took prizes at the June exhibition of the 
Society. They ranked in the order of the num¬ 
bers, Fig. 1, taking the highest premium. The 
editor of the London Gardener’s Chronicle says 
of the decision of the Committee, “The merit of 
the skillful arrangement to which the first prize 
was awarded, has been much discussed,and those 
wno can not perceive how superior graceful 
form is to mere heaps of color, have not hesi¬ 
tated to condemn the judgment that conferred 
the premium. To us it seems impossible not to 
see that, however handsome the other groups 
may have been, they were unmistakably infe¬ 
rior to the successful piece. For how was the 
beautiful effect produced ? Not by masses of 
flowers of priceless value, quite unfit for the pur¬ 
poses of a dinner table, to last for a few hours; 
but by some Ferns, some Lycopods, a few Roses, 
some Forget-me-nots, Vine leaves, and small 
clust ers of grapes. Any body wit h the most mod¬ 
est income, could imitate this.” 
The above remarks and illustrations are, of 
course, intended to be only suggestive. Deco 
