PANEL ON CYPRESS WOOD 
when in place, the decoration being for the room not 
for a portion only of the wall surface. Of course 
the visitor to the League, as to all other galleries, is 
to be forgiven if he momentarily yields to the temp¬ 
tation of accepting this exhibit as a picture, and view¬ 
ing and criticising it as a composition complete in 
itself, the frame helping the illusion. 
Yes! The work of a painter of room decorations 
with all its opportunities, its accent and climaxes, its 
strong virile figures, its perspective inviting imagi¬ 
nation, must be viewed as an entirety. The painter, 
however, is better off than the writer of roman¬ 
tic fiction, who may find it easy enough to start 
but discovers the completion of his work full of 
difficulties at every turn. The painting of a con¬ 
tinuous frieze is a problem without commencement 
or end. 
HOUSE FERNERIES 
Suitable Plants and Their Care 
By JANE LESLIE KIFT 
OT many years ago plants on the dinner table, 
even for special occasions, were something 
rarely thought of. It can be remembered 
how, about twenty-five or more years ago, there were 
used for weddings, receptions and other times of 
festivity, great high pyramids, very formal and stiff 
looking, composed mainly of camellias and around 
each camellia were tied a few flowers, mostly stevia 
(roses then not being grown in quantity for winter 
blooming); and when the guests left the dining-room 
each one was presented with one of these little bou¬ 
quets taken from the pyramid. 
After people began to tire of or rather to realize 
the homeliness of the pyramid, they began to adopt 
the great high wicker basket centerpiece, containing 
flowers and fruit. Then the basket, as a new design, 
was made with a top and cornucopia-shaped baskets 
starting out from the main stem. Everything but 
the bottom or main basket was for filling with cut 
flowers, and the main body was for fruit. They 
were all shapes and painted and gilded most gor¬ 
geously. After this came all sorts of straw recep¬ 
tacles in every shape and form for center-tables. 
Then came birch bark designs to be used exclu¬ 
sively for dinner decoration. 
A GOOD ASSORTMENT 
1 49 
