THE LADIES ’ FLORAL CABINET. 
311 
called Flags), Rushes, Reeds, etc.—are in their prime, 
nothing looks better in a large vase, or more especially 
a Japanese jar, than any of these, or a variety prettily 
grouped. Taking care to arrange your flowers as much 
after the fashion of nature as possible, is the golden rule 
of all successful floral decorations. Thus, supposing 
the above-named aquatic plants are used, and, in addi¬ 
tion, Water-Lilies, Forget-me-nots, and Ragged Robins, 
which are all low-growing flowers, and you are going to 
arrange them in a shallow wooden tub filled with damp 
sand—place the Water-Lilies round the edge, and among 
them the Forget-me-nots; behind them, a gain, the Ragged 
Robins, mixing with them any of the leaves of about the 
same height, which may be found in abundance in 
marshy places; behind these, again, group your Irises 
with their sword-Iilce leaves, and, as a centre, have a 
mass of Bulrushes and Reeds, with common Rushes to 
give lightness to the whole, avoiding any stiffness in the 
arrangement, by placing a good many flowering grasses 
here and there over the whole, allowing them to top the 
Forget-me-nots and Water-Lilies by as much as they 
would do when growing naturally. 
For high decorations, use tall-growing flowers; for 
low ones, such as are stunted in their growth. Of 
course, there are exceptions to this rule as to all others; 
thus, Roses may be used in shallow glasses, especially 
for dinner-tables, with great advantage; and I think the 
following explanation will make plain why this is: You 
cannot gather a whole Rose tree, or even a branch, with¬ 
out doing material injury to your garden; so you pluck 
off the blooms with a short stalk, and tise them in low 
decorations merely as cut flowers that have not the 
smallest pretension to be anything else. With the 
water-plants it is different. You gather as much as 
you see growing in a state of nature; therefore arrange 
them as nearly as you can as you found them, for the 
eye that designed the Lilies of the field is surely worthy 
of imitation. 
In many drawing-rooms, valuable marble or alabaster 
tables are among the furnishing; and these, though 
often too precious to be put to the use they were origi¬ 
nally intended for, may have their beauty enhanced by 
one or two well-arranged bouquets of flowers being 
placed on them. It must be remembered in this case 
that the flowers are a secondary consideration, being 
merely to increase the beauty of the table, not to draw 
attontion from an ornamental but useful piece of furni¬ 
ture to th. mselves, as is often the case. For a wlfite 
marble or alabaster slab, nothing looks so well as scarlet 
Geraniums, varied with Spiraea or Lily-of-tlie-Valley and 
some Maidenhair Fern, arranged in a low vessel to 
bring the eye down to the table on which it stands. On 
no account should rare flowers be used, as they will 
then receive more attention from most people than the 
marble they ornament. 
Old punch-bowls are useful as receptacles for flowers; 
but then, again, they are often so beautifully colored in¬ 
side that it seems a pity to put anything in them. 
When this is the case, I would advise the bowl to be 
filled to the brim with clear water, and one or two 
Water-Lilies with a small leaf allowed to float in it. 
For blue and white Nankin china or delf, yellow is 
preferable to any other shade; .thus Allamandas and 
Maidenhair, or in large vases Sunflowers witty their own 
foliage, are very effective. Branches of the common 
creeping wild Rose, or of Hawthorn, either pink or 
white, and, above all, Apple blossom, are all lovely in 
blue and white vases. For small ones, Poppies or Eye- 
Daisies and grass cannot be improved upon. Very choice 
Roses are best kept alone—one variety in one receptacle 
—and, therefore, they ought to be put in small glasses 
or vases, as a great mass of one sort of Rose, however 
lovely, is stiff-looking; Maidenhair and a few of their 
own leaves are the only greenery admirable with Roses. 
The smaller kinds, indeed, are better entirely with their 
own foliage, and the pale-yellow sorts look extremely 
well in turquoise-blue Valery ware, at present so fashion¬ 
able. As a rule, however, I prefer glass vessels for 
Roses; but glass to look well should be most carefully 
cleaned and always bright. The colored glass vases, 
which can be had almost anywhere now, especially 
those with a crackled appearance, are useful for all sorts 
of flowers, and do not require such extremely careful 
polishing as the plain ones. One of the prettiest bou¬ 
quets I ever saw was of climbing Devoniensis (a light 
pink-blush Rose) and white Narcissus, with a few large 
fronds of Maidenhair in a round, bowl-shaped, light- 
green glass. 
No hard and fast rule can be laid down for the ar¬ 
rangement of flowers, though suggestions maybe made; 
and I hope that, if any readers make use of my sugges¬ 
tions, they will improve upon them with their own 
taste. Growing Ivy trained over a cane-screen has 
often been recommended as a decoration; but, owing to 
the necessary damp earth and the likelihood of creeping 
things (such as earwigs) accompanying it, I cannot say 
that it is a good thing. Long-gathered sprays of Ivy 
look just as well, and can be kept a long time by spong¬ 
ing them every day. In gathering Ferns (Maidenhair 
especially) care must be taken to select the old fronds, 
and they will last twice as long if part of the frond, as 
well as the stalk, is in the water; it is also a good thing 
to immerse them every day (over-head) in water. Sand 
is often used instead of mere water to arrange flowers 
in; and when this is the case it must be looked at every 
day, as it is apt to dry very quickly. Small- baskets 
gilded with Judson’s gold paint (which is very cheap 
and effective), and with tins made to fit them, are very 
pretty, either in the drawing-room or on a dinner-table. 
The small round baskets, formed like gypsy kettles, and 
which can generally be supplied with a broken cup or 
claret glass as a flower holder instead of a shaped tin, 
are very effective when arranged as we so often used to 
see them—pendant from three sticks, kettle fashion, the 
whole being covered with silver paper or. better still, 
gilt. The small baskets in which we buy Strawberries 
are very useful for holding flowers, either painted or 
gilt, and a garden saucer does, well to hold the water. 
Bottle-baskets, divided into compartments about six 
inches square, look well with a small flower-pot in each 
compartment and an Ivy trail round the handle. Creep¬ 
ing-plants are not half enough used for house decoration. 
What can be prettier than a window with a pot in which 
scarlet Tropasolum has been trained up a stake some six 
feet high on each side of it, the top shoots of the plants 
brought across and attached to each other so as to form 
an arch ? Clematis can be so treated with advantage.; it 
ought to grow to the desired height under the gardener’s 
care, and only be brought in when in full beauty, as the 
conditions of light and air in a dwelling-house are gen¬ 
erally against quick-growing plants. When flowers are 
in delicate Dresden or Sevres vases, they ought to be as 
