Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1891

Rh But if economy is an object, it is easy enough to have flowers for nothing in the country. What prettier ornaments can we find for our table in spring than the wild flowers of that season, specially primroses and cowslips. In summer, what more cool and refreshing than water-lilies and grasses. In autumn, what grand effects can be produced with the richly-tinted foliage and berries of that season. While, even in winter, really beautiful effects can be produced with fresh dark evergreen leaves, mingled with golden bracken dried and pressed.

Foliage Decoration is, if well and artistically done, one of the most lovely. It commends itself for vases of coloured glass or for white china stands set upon crimson plush centres. As many white leaves as can be found should be chosen, and light feathery grasses (real, not dyed ones) should be introduced. Hot-house foliage varies from white to almost black, and has so many tints of green that a pretty effect is easily gained when tasteful hands carry out the decorating. Palms can be also used, and made to form very pretty centres on dinner-tables, if the pot is hidden by moss and covered with flowers and foliage.

Dessert Centres, as they are usually called, are particularly effective on large tables. They may be made of any material and in any colour, but for one which has to do duty often, red is perhaps the most useful colour, while plush is the most effective material. We have seen an old gold brocaded silk one look extremely well, with its fringe of myrtle and brown ivy leaves, and its tall, slender vases of yellowy-tinted glass filled with crimson flowers and foliage, also a pale pink one, upon which the flowers are of two tones of the same colour, with a good deal of white and green intermixed, the shades of the lamps being rose colour. Dessert centres are more suitable for winter than summer decoration. Choose the flowers according to the season and centre, if one is used. In summer, a cool effect is needed, and plenty of white and green should be found upon the table, while in winter it is pleasant to see brilliantly coloured flowers, that seem to give warmth as well as brightness to the table. Glasses through which the stems of the flowers can be seen should be filled with water, but bowls or opaque stands can be filled with moss or sand, in which it is far easier to arrange the flowers than in water.

Strewing.— This is an exceedingly pretty way of decorating the table, but it unfortunately happens sometimes that the flowers wither or become disarranged. It is necessary to choose such flowers and foliage as will bear heat and lie without water for a time for this purpose. Ivy leaves and smilax come in here well, as does also myrtle and French inn. and foliage generally looks better alone than with flowers, particularly for a border for a dessert centre.

Decorations for a wedding breakfast are prettiest and most appropriate when arranged entirely with white flowers and foliage. Often the cake is decorated with the bride's bouquet.