January 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
337 
the question which Mr. Beaton has raised. But we must 
not forget that there are many iiowers which would wonder¬ 
fully add to‘the effect and beauty of a bouquet, but which 
are either stuck in loosely on the surface, or altogether 
rejected, because tliey have no stalks by which they may bo 
attached in the ordinary way. Every person who has 
attempted to construct a bouquet with some degree of taste, 
must be able to call to mind a number of little disappoint¬ 
ments, while making a tour in search of flowers, which are 
only to be explained by the circumstancos now noticed. 
Very often, indeed, the freshest and prettiest flowers must 
be passed by, simply because their stalks are much too 
short for tho purpose of a bouquet. But the Parisian 
flower-dealers surmount all obstacles of this kind ; for if 
their flowers have no stalks of their own, they arc provided 
with artificial ones, which answer the end desired just as 
well. Indeed, it is astonishing to see with what scanty 
materials a flower-girl here will construct a bouquet in a 
very short time. If her flowers have stalks, good and well; . 
if not, it is all the same. This point does not affect the 
character of her bouquet, or make it less capable of being j 
tested in the way I suggested in a former dispatch. What 
some bouquet makers would leave to be thrown away, 
after finishing their work, would be good enough for her 
to sit down and make such a bouquet as might surpass 
theirs. 
In beginning to make her bouquets, the French flower- 
girl provides herself with a bundle of what she calls 
“ Spanish Rushes,” a species of Juncus, remarkable for its 
close tissues, a circumstance which imparts to it much 
strength when dried. It is but little thicker than a common ! 
knitting wire, but as stiff and tough as a dry osier twig ; of j 
the same thickness, or perhaps thicker. 
These rushes are said to be imported from Spain, and 
the flower-girl has to purchase them at so much a pound. 
Thus provided, she sits down to her table, on which are 
placed the flowers according to their kind, also several 
parcels of fine string of different lengths, and a small basin 
of water. The flowers at present before her, it must be 
recollected, have but very short stalks, and in most cases no 
stalk at all. 
She has taken up one; it is a mere fragment broken from 
a panicle of Lilac, at the same time she has doubled one of 
the yellow rushes. The flower is placed at the point of 
doubling, and with a thread, secured in such a way as to 
keep it from slipping off. The thread, in short, is passed 
under the loop formed by the doubling of the rush, which 
in this way explains itself. Two or three turns of the thread 
are sufficient till the point of connection between the flower ! 
and the rush is covered with a tuft of green mosses, the j 
heads of which are brought up to the first or second bios- | 
sorus, when several more turns of the thread aro given, I 
ending towards the bottom of the stalk formed by the J 
doubled rush, where it is tied. Here we have a bouquet in 
miniature ; and the flower-girl, with well practised fingers, 
has completed it, dipped it in ivater, and laid it down in one- 
third of the time I have taken to describe the operation. 
While she is going on with others in the same way, suppose 
we make an acquisition of the one just made, and examine 
it a little. In the first place, it is very neat; a small head of 
pale Lilac, and a high necklace of deep green Moss, the 
individuals of which are themselves models of sym¬ 
metry. It is neatly and securely tied, and the stalk is about 
ten inches long. It has been dipped in the water evidently 
to moisten the moss, in order to keep the blossoms all fresh; 
while the moss itself prevents the thread from pressing too 
tightly on tho soft, short stem of the Lilac. 
But now the flower-girl has already prepared more than a 
dozen of other flowers of different sorts and colours in the 
same manner, and she proceeds to make up her bouquet 
with them, as she would do with so many flowers having 
natural stalks, lacing them together until they are all used 
one after another. When the bouquet is completed, you 
would never suppose, to look at it, that the flowers of which 
it is composed are only mere fragments tied together, or 
that the entire flowers have only stalks two or three inches 
long. Yet, here we have a beautiful bouquet, eight or ten 
inches in diameter, and with a handle no thicker than one’s 
thumb, a feature of no inconsiderable importance in hand 
bouquets of any size; for where the flowers have all their 
own stalks the entire length, it is difficult to prevent the 
handle from being inconveniently bulky. Of course, when 
there are flowers with suitable stalks, in point of length, 
the rushes are not used ; though it will sometimes happen 
that the stalks are too thick or clumsy; and in that case, they 
are broken off at the lower part, and rushes tied to the flowers. 
But the principal use of these auxiliaries is to form stalks 
to such flowers as have no stalks, or whose stalks are too 
soft or too short. In this way, if tho flowors are pretty, or 
otherwise suitable, they are deprived of all plea of ex¬ 
emption from active service on account of defective limbs, 
and when duly equipped they make as good a turn out and 
last as long as their more robust comrades. 
Bouquet-making, here, is like any other, a distinct trade, 
that is to bo learned only with practice. Even in the flower- 
markets, the stalls of bouquets are separated from the stalls 
of flowers and plants in pots; while these are both separated 
from the dealers in bulbs, roots, soil, pots, boxes, &c. In 
this way the trade is divided, and sub-divided into soveral 
branches, where long practice and study have produced a 
corresponding amount of dexterity and good taste. Tho 
flower-girl, whose business it is to make up bouquets, day 
after day, all the year round, displays as much alacrity of 
touch as a skilful performer in any other art. She has 
learned all the colours and their supplementary tints which 
produce a certain effect in combination. She has studied 
the forms which every description of bouquet requires, and 
she can tell with unerring exactness the particular sorts of 
flowers which she will be able to obtain at any given season. 
She can run over a mental catalogue of different styles and 
sizes, and no sooner does she choose the central flower of a 
bouquet, than all the others which are to surround it are at 
once determined, in the same way a musician fingers his 
chords according to the key he has struck. But she carries 
the refinement of her art beyond the mere mechanical 
sphere of its existence, and pays court to the lovers of sen¬ 
timent and poetry. Is the lady for whom the bouquet is 
intended a bride, or just lately married ? Then the flower- 
girl will make your offering smell of Citron groves, and 
speak the language of purity and innocence. Is it the birth¬ 
day of a mourner you are about to celebrate ? Then weeping 
Daffodils, Cypress, or Wallflower, will form a considerable 
part of your bouquet. In short, if there is any noticeable 
incident connected with the present fortune of the lady for 
whom the bouquet is intended, you have only to mention it, 
and the flower-girl will contrive to embody the silent ex¬ 
pression of an appropriate sentiment in the flowers which 
she selects. If none of the bouquets already made are 
suitable, she will construct one in a few minutes, for the 
materials are all prepared, and she has only to put them 
together. 
Is it.wonderful that the French bouquets are so pretty, or 
that the duties of the flower-girl include so much finesse 
and talent? The Parisians live, move, and have their 
being amongst flowers. The cradle of infancy is decked 
with bouquets; the baptismal font is turned into an aqua¬ 
rium. The young communicants must go to church with 
wreathes of Orange-blossom; the child who is awarded a 
prize at school must also receive a bouquet, or be crowned 
with flowers. Flowers envelope the billet dotix of the lover; 
and at the hymeneal altar they are the tokens of consumated 
affection. In Church they decorate the precincts of tho 
Cross, and are strewn at the feet of the Virgin, their per¬ 
fumes thus mingling with the “ sweet smelling savour ” of 
the faithful’s prayer. No splendid festival, no pompous 
ceremony, no humble merry-making, is considered complete 
without a profusion of flowers. Every day is a birthday, 
and every birthday is a jour de fete , consecrated to social 
enjoyment, and tho parade of bouquets. 
But to return to the “Spanish Bushes," called here, Jones 
d'Espagne. I am unable, at present, to ascertain whether 
their strength is natural to them, or whether it is the 
result of particular treatment after being gathered; it may 
be difficult, however, to find anything better suited for the 
purpose of making bouquets. The stalks of Sparlium 
junceum , or of the common Broom, might bo substituted 
with partial success; some fine varieties of Osier might 
also furnish suitable twigs. None of these, however, can 
be so good as the rushes used by the flower-girls here; 
and, surely, at the present day, the nurserymen round 
