Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

consists simply of a spiral coil made of sheet -lead cut into ribbons. This can be bent about to suit the various sizes of the stems. The weight of the leaden coil will balance flowers and branches of considerable height, and it can always be additionally weighted with stones if necessary. This fastener may be used in almost every shaped vase, of no matter what material ; for there is no danger, as in the case of the fitting wooden fasteners, that it will crack glass or fine china. Any plumber will supply the strips of sheet-lead, which should be about 2 ft. long, f in. wide, and £ in. thick, though the sizes vary, of course, according to the vase. It is quite easy to bend these strips into a spiral coil. These are simple ways of making flower-holders at home with the most ordinary materials; but, of course, with more trouble a great variety of fasteners can be made. The next thing to be done is to get a branch of Bamboo or other thin stick, not too brittle, and cut it up into pieces of about an inch long, so as to have a heap of different thicknesses. Before proceeding to cut or buy your flowers, you must decide in what part of the room to place the decorations, so as to have an idea of what would be suitable as to colour, size, and form. If for the corner of a shelf or mantelpiece, the arrangement might be high on one side of the vase, with a long streamer pendent on the other. If for a table under a picture, it might tend upwards, and the Tertiary line form almost a right angle — in complement, as it were, to the shape of the frame when placed to one side underneath it. For any purpose special kinds of flowers are required, as it would be contrary to the fundamental laws of the art to try and make a stiff or upward- growing plant hang downwards, or to try and erect a flower with a limp stem. One place, too, requires a tall, narrow decoration; another a wide or more solemn one. When you have the destined situation of the decoration in your mind, go out and choose flowers and shrubs accordingly, bearing in mind as you pick them the directions the stems will have to take. It is as well always to have a basin of water ready in which to place the flowers immediately after picking them, as in the process of selection, fixing in the wedge, &c. — especially until you are practised in the art — the flowers are apt to wither and the vigour in the curves of the stems to get limp, so that it is APPENDIX 363 difficult to carry out any design. The best plan is to place the vase, before filling it, where it will eventually be required to stand, so as to be sure and procure the suitable effect. It is advisable not to put water in the vessel until the composition is completed, as it sometimes tips over in the process of fixing the stems in the wedge.