mm wfffW '**reft- ECOWER PICTDRI m * u u nin, uMmt**^ PflWffl STEALING AND FRAN CINE C1AR1C ART INSTITUTE L1BRART : 1 J ft /1 , -«■<>-••" J I E I In ■ r«i i^^i i > UTH. Of SAPIOW. MAJOH U rVAPP. -*•*# HftOAOtVAr. N Y THE BOQUET OF SUMMEB met f!f\ \ m 9 I \ AND |0tB tff Mzlt <$]ttm. "New and Enlarged Edition. P n. NEW-YORK: F. RANDOLPH, 683 1859. BROADWAY ' rt; k Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York. ( -ft' Fohn A. Gray, Printer and Stereotype^ 16 and 18 Jacob St., Fire-Proof Buildings. # • v\ TO MY TWO DEAR tt vt THIS LITTLE BOOK IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED New-Toe k, 1857. v> r , t And who ? I hear the reader ask — who in all the world — are your "Doppies"? I answer-— they are two dear little girls. I love them, and they love me; and once — a long while ago — when I was visiting their mother, the younger mounted a chair, and calling me to her, laid her hand upon my head, and solemnly "adopted" me to be her aunt. Since which time they have both called me Aunt "Doppy." They said to me not long ago : " The next book you write, Aunt Doppy, you must dedicate to us." Their names are Nellie and Anna; but I prefer to call them my dear Doppies ; for that has Love's baptism. 4 I m> 4 i **■ . PEEF ACE. ^^% ■%* I WAS asked one day, after I had completed a leaf-picture, and a wreath of pressed flowers, which as far surpassed the most exquisite painting as the work of God ever surpasses even the best imita- tion of it that man can make: " Why do you not write a little book, and give clear and minute directions how to make those ?— for there are many who would like to make pictures like yours, who do not know how to set themselves about it ; and yet I should think even children might be told how to do them, and they, at least, would be delighted ; as any thing that they can do them- selves always gives them so much more pleasure than any thing that is done for them." The notion was a pleasant one, that I could in this way add to the happiness of children ; and I know from ex- perience that I take a much greater interest, and am amused for a much longer time, in any work that I can make with my own hands, than I do in any thing that is bought for me, "ready-made," to whose arrangement I can add no new grace; to whose beauty I can impart no expression of my own individuality. This little book is intended to assist in placing within the reach f a u_even the youngest and poorest-^the means of adding some beauty to their home, which shall cost them but little, either of time, labor, or money. 8 PREFACE. 4> I think, even quite small children, both boys and girls, as well as older persons, will find it delightful to make themselves pictures, and have a collection "of their own," of all sorts of leaves, mosses, grasses, flowers, and lichens. Will it not add greatly to the pleasure of being out of doors, if, in every walk you take, from May to October, you carry home some leaf, or flower, or spike of grass, to add to the treasures of your Hortus Siccus, or to lay aside until the long cold hours of winter come, when in varnishing and arranging them as pictures and decora- tions, you can almost restore to yourself the delight of your summer rambles, and make into a permanent and abiding pleasure a portion of the beauty which then charmed and refreshed your soul ? Therefore, dear reader, be you child or woman, boy or man, if you would open your eyes some frosty morning next January, and behold a lovely wreath of flowers blooming upon the walls of your chamber, with all the freshness of June — a wreath that Jack Frost can not wither, even if he has sent the mercury out of sight below zero — read this little book ; for you can have one by following its directions. And you who have no curtains of lace or damask, and who long for some beauty and grace in your furniture, only read my little book, and you can have vines running up your parlor walls, by the side of your windows, that shall rival in beauty the golden grape-vine in the Temple of Solomon. And you who sigh in vain for the adornment of engravings and the decoration of paintings and frescoes — to whom the creations of any great artist are unattainable things, only study with me a little while, and from God's full treasury of leaves and flowers, you may each and all gather materials to make your own pictures, and garnish your dwellings; gathering, at the same time, health and hope, a better knowledge of the exhaustless skill of God, and a taste ever more and more fully appreciating the beauty He has created in such m i '* . ■ ■ I 4 IK 1 PKEFACE. 9 marvellous profusion for your culture and enjoyment, as well as for isure. With those you will also obtain a growing per- ^oloring, outline, and adaptation, that shall be to you a joy, and a means of usefulness all the days of your life. you say that I promise a great deal ? That is true ; but if never did betray the heart that loved her," and you will ^ directions, and catch my enthusiasm for these delightful am quite sure you will never feel disposed to sue me for a lusted the subject. Any one who loves take original designs, and, after some to use leaves and flowers as ornaments is that I have not yet thought oi^ and id become only half as pleasant and jLias been to me ; and if you ever Lfts of leaf and flower pictures that ^ed upon me, I am sure you will bringing to your notice such a o sadly sit and say, I were a child to-day I" and like the children, play: ^r>-; I, to Nature's groves and bowers, j^chcr It- ;;^ u and grass, and flowers, ffifott ghalt be^^gxfd at night, with just asTsound delight s a child ; and waking, say, " How the hours flew yesterday ! What I did I can not tell ; Truly, 't was a simple spell 1" 4:i ** " • Il 4" PKEFACE. 9 marvellous profusion for your culture and enjoyment, as well as for his own pleasure. With those you will also obtain a growing per- ception of coloring, outline, and adaptation, that shall be to you a fountain of joy, and a means of usefulness all the days of your life. Do you say that I promise a great deal ? That is true ; but if "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her," and you will follow my directions, and catch my enthusiasm for these delightful pursuits, I am quite sure you will never feel disposed to sue me for a "breach of promise. 11 I have by no means exhausted the subject. Any one who loves these things may go on and make original designs, and, after some practice, may discover how to use leaves and flowers as ornaments and decorations, in many ways that I have not yet thought of, and have never seen. If it should become only half as pleasant and improving a pursuit to you as it has been to me ; and if you ever win half the thanks for your gifts of leaf and flower pictures that kind and loving hearts have showered upon me, I am sure you will thank me as long as you live for bringing to your notice such a charming recreation. ■* * -• 4 You who sadly sit and say, " Would I were a child to-day I" Come, and like the children, play: Come to Nature's groves and bowers, Gather leaves, and grass, and flowers. Thou shalt be as tired at night, Sleep with just as sound delight As a child ; and waking, say, " How the hours flew yesterday 1 What I did I can not tell ; Truly, 'twas a simple spell 1" 10 * H. B. *> \ i V\J mi mttt Mmm §ktttm AOT) ELOW to ma.:ke them =* 4 O < > » >■ CHAPTER FIRST. Hi C L EAVES. In May, you may find in the woods, small leaves, and wild flowers, that will press well ; and as early as June, in every walk you take, by the roadside, in the forest, and in the garden, you can find beautiful green leaves in great abundance. It will be well for you to make it a rule, never to go home from a walk, without at least one leaf to add to your store. June and July are the best months for collecting every sort of green leaf, as those gathered thus early, 12 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, are less likely to be torn by winds, and defaced by insects ; and they also lose less of their fresh and beautiful green, when they are pressed, than those do, that are gathered later in the season. Gather small leaves of every sort ; from the trees, the shrubs, the brambles, the weeds by the roadside, and from the undergrowth of the forest. The smaller leaves are the best for wreaths of leaves, and pictures of all sorts ; but you will need some large ones, and a great many large and small fern leaves, to inter- sperse with the gayer-colored autumn leaves, with which you will decorate the walls of your rooms ; and small boughs of leaves will be needed to place in vases with grasses, and to nail upon walls by the side of windows ; and if you can find small sprays of tiny leaves, be sure and gather them, for these are always graceful in making your wreaths and pic- tures. The greater variety you can have in the size of the leaf, the better, as the greater the variety of outline the more pleasure will be given to the eye. If, for instance, I make an entire picture of maple leaves, which are nearly all of one shape ; whatever variety of colors I may have the picture, it will noi be so beautiful as it will be if I have one leaf of each of these forms : - r . P - M - AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 13 I V z* \ I / ;hers with these outlines : t - f \U, in sprays and stems, bearing many ^fiiis variety of outline is as essential beauty of a picture, as the variety in ter a rain, iJftot a good time to col- liey are better when dried by the sun, J ways be carefully wiped with a soft "ore pressing if they are at all damp, or c'ust upon them. AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 13 i ■r Others with these outlines : ~ And others, still, in sprays and stems, bearing many small leaves. This variety of outline is as essential to the highest beauty of a picture, as the variety in color. Soon after a rain, is not a good time to col- lect leaves ; they are better when dried by the sun, and should always be carefully wiped with a soft towel before pressing if they are at all damp, or have any dust upon them. . 14 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, These are some of the more common leaves that press well : Beech, Pear, Aspen, Plum, Oak, Cherry, Birch, Blackberry, Purple Beech, Ferns. Autumn leaves should be gathered as soon as pos- sible after they change color, as those that turn ear- . liest, retain their colors best and brightest. Re- member to press many green and yelloiv leaves, for contrasts. Brambles, weeds, creeping vines, low shrubs, Seringoes, and many wild things that grow in woods, afford suitable leaves for pressing. The Sumac is so brittle, that I have abandoned pressing - it, although it is more brilliant in autumn, than al- most any other leaf. The only way to keep them uncrumbled, is, to paste each spike of leaves, by itself, upon separate pages of an Herbarium, or on separate sheets of card-board. There are many more leaves, whose names I do not know, that are beautiful when pressed. ) . Of P410N/ MAJOR JcXNA°F>. 4-tS SWMWAr: MS THE F ORE S T WRE AT H AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 15 CHAPTER SECOND. BEST MODE OF PRESSING LEAVES. Take any old book, the less stiff, and the more soft, or, to use a learned word, the more bibulous, the paper is, the better ; for then it will drink in or absorb the moisture from the leaves. It must be a book you do not value; for the dampness that it will absorb more or less from all flowers and leaves, will make the paper yellow, and be also likely to soften the covers. Provide yourself with an old soft towel, with which you can wipe all dust and dampness carefully from both sides of your leave. Then lay them flat, singly or in little branches, of three and four upon one stem ; keep the stems upon as many of your leaves as possible ; for when you come to the bottom of a wreath, you need the stems to give it the appearance of a vine or bouquet: also, in decorating walls, you will need the stems. Begin at the end of your book. Lay in as many leaves as the page will hold without overlapping 16 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, any. Now take twelve or twenty leaves of the look, and press them down carefully over your green leaves, so as to be sure to leave them lying uncurled,. ' and with unfolded and unwrinkled edges ; then put in another layer of green leaves, then fold over them several more pages of the book ; and so on, until your book is Med. Many persons use weights, or piles of books, or cumbrous contrivances to hold the lids of the book together tightly, and press the green leaves flat. But the simplest and easiest method for every one, is, to take one or two long strong strings, and pass them many times around the book, both from bottom to top, and from side to side, and as near the edges as possible. Then if tied tightly, you may make a foot-ball of it, if you choose, and the leaves will not be disturbed, but will come out straight and in as good order as when you laid them in. In this way books filled with flowers and leaves, may be thrown into closets or garrets, until they are wanted ; and no amount of tossing about can injure them, unless the strings get untied, and they will need no further care, but will be all ready for var- nishing, when you want them in the winter. Indeed, you may preserve them for years in this way. I have heather that was pressed in Scotland years AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 17 ago, leaves pressed in Virginia twelve years since, and a leaf that my brother picked from the grave of Napoleon, in St. Helena, before his remains were re- moved to Paris. These are all in good preservation, and even now the heather bells retain their color and much of their original beauty. 2 e 18 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, CHAPTER THIRD. DIRECTIONS FOR SELECTING AND PRESSING FLOWERS. As a general rule, all flowers will press well un- less they have pulpy leaves, or a soft calyx. When- ever the leaf or petal of a flower, has a juiceless, silky texture, and the little green cup, or calyx, that holds the leaves together, is sapless and firm, the flower will press nicely. Even small Marigolds and double Buttercups will press well. But all Roses, excepting the Dwarf Burgundy, all Lilies, Petunias, and Camelias, Acacias, and nearly all white flowers, are unsuitable. The best garden flowers to press are : Tulips, the Scarlet Defiance, Verbena, common Blue Larkspurs, Heaths of all kinds. All sorts of Heather, scarlet and purple Sages, Forget-me-nots, all sorts of Pansies, (which some persons call Vio- lets,) Carnations, and many of the red and blush- colored Pinks, and all flowers that are blue, and re- semble Harebells, or single Buttercups. All varieties of small green leaves should be gathered and pressed Q jMMHlHliMBlilliHHHMHI^^^ m % AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 19 —the more of them the better. Of greenhouse flowers among the best, are the small red horns of the Coral-plant, Arbutilon blossoms and leaves, Bourardas, all Sages, Heaths, Geraniums, and Dra- gon-flowers, Nasturtions, and Fuschias, if small ; and many more whose names I do not know. Quaking grass, Canadian grass, Oats, nearly all Mosses, and nearly all varieties of grass will press well and add to the beauty of your decorations. In selecting flowers, care must be taken to get those most recently opened. For when a flower has been opened a day or two, its leaves get loose in the calyx, its tints lose some of their brightness, and its silky leaves are more likely to crumple and wrinkle in drying ; and the dried flower, when you come to take it out of your book to use in a pic- ture, will be very likely to fall apart, and you will have some trouble in rearranging the leaves as they grow in the calyx. Yet if you can not get flowers when they are first opened, you can take the separate leaves, when pressed, and stick them one by one, back into their calyx, and they will look just as if they had never fallen apart. But in order to do this, you must study the look of every flower you see, so that it will be daguerrotyped in your 20 LEAF AND FLO WEE PICTTJEES, memory, and then you will be able to restore the petals to their cup, in the same order in which the Creator made them to grow. This is a delightful and most instructive part of the study ; and if you learn it well, you can draw and paint flowers, and leaves, and trees, from memory, which would be a great advantage to any artist, especially in winter. I would add, that lialf- opened buds, and small tm-opened buds, such as Arbutilon and Fuschias, are beautiful to press, and make your variety of outline greater. Verbenas, and all plants that blossom so that many flowers form but one bunch, must be sepa- rated, and either pressed singly, or in smaller bunches of two and three. If you undertake to press an undivided bunch, you will mar its beauty; for the blossoms will overlie each other. I should prefer to press each blossom separately, for you can easily group them together again, if you wish to have a bunch of them in any of your pictures, or in an Herbarium. It will be a good plan, whenever you visit a greenhouse or garden, to look for those flowers and leaves which will press well, and which you do not own, and never omit an opportunity of adding to your collection. If you have friends who AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 21 are travellers or sailors, you can, through them, pro- cure many rare flowers, and those that have interest from foreign, or historical association. An Ivy leaf from Kenilworth, or one from Rome or Athens ; a leaf from South-America, California, Australia ; any such token, adds much to the interest of an Her- barium. Tulips may be preserved more perfect in pressing, by pressing each petal by itself, and the calyx by itself, and then group the leaves together afterward, when you come to use them, inserting them in the calyx as they formerly grew. |f ^> \ r 22 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, CHAPTEE FOUKTH. MOSSES AND GRASSES. Mosses you will find in greenhouses, in the woods, on the trunks and roots of trees, and on rocks. Lichens grow on old fences, on rocks, on stone walls, and upon the bark of trees. You need an old knife, with a blunt edge, with which to pry lichens, in large unbroken flakes, from the places where they grow. Brakes and Ferns are found in almost every grove and forest in New-England, and they press beau- tifully. They are chiefly valuable to mingle with autumn leaves, in decorating the walls of a room, or to place over doors and arches, as they are much too large for pictures of the usual size. Still, small ones are beautiful, glued singly on a leaf in one's Herbarium. Grasses are beautiful for decorating walls, for bouquets and baskets, and for vases, mingled with boughs of autumn leaves. You can not have too many spurs of Oats for all these purposes. _. AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 23 They are graceful in every place. You want them both ripe and unripe, for thus you will have two varieties of color in one form, namely, green when unripe, and yellow when ripe; all which help to vary the beauty. ^ m 24 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, CHAPTER FIFTH. VARNISHING LEAVES. Have a large-mouthed vial, or a cup, filled with what carriage-makers call " Flowing Tarnish.'' Have a soft brush like this : Some use " white moss, or paper varnish" in pre- ference. As you dip it in the varnish be careful to take up but little, and press off all that would drop on to the side of your vial, or cup. Have plenty of newspapers spread upon your table, and a towel at hand. Paint each leaf upon the right side with a coating of the varnish. The leaves that you in- tend to paste into an Herbarium, or upon card-board for pictures, will need but one coat of varnish upon the right side ; then you can lay them away upon the newspapers to dry. Be careful that, when drying, each leaf lies single ; for if two leaves lap, they will ■MBOTBMi ■MMMHMHB^BHMIHIiH ^■■■■■■■^■■^■^^■■■B AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 25 stick so tightly together that you can not separate them without breaking them. Then take your larger leaves, and your boughs or bunches of leaves, and varnish and dry them in the same manner; and when, after a week, they are perfectly dry, give them an additional coat of varnish, dry them once more, and afterward take any boughs and leaves that you design to use in vases, and give them one coat of varnish upon the wrong side of the leaf, to pre- vent their curling at the edges. If glued to paper, or to a wall', they will not need it. This repeated varnishing is not absolutely neces- sary ; still it tends to keep the leaves from curling, and makes them more glossy. A large paper box is the best thing to keep them in, after they are all varnished and thoroughly dried. Girls and ladies will find it desirable to use an old pair of kid gloves when varnishing ; for although you can remove the varnish from your hands with grease, hot water, soap, and a vigorous rubbing with a piece of pumice-stone, yet it will save you much trouble not to get it on. You need newspapers to cover and protect your table, or table-cloth, both when varnishing and pasting and pressing, for it is all untidy work if it is not done with care. 26 LEAP AND FLOWER PICTURES, CHAPTEK SIXTH. HOW TO PREPARE THE GUM FOR FASTENING LEAVES AND FLOWERS IN THEIR PLACES, IN WREATHS, BOUQUETS, ETC. I have tried many sorts of glue, and find that Gum Tragacanth is far the best. Get six cents' worth of this gum, of an apothecary ; take half of it and put it into an empty tin spice-box, such as come filled with mustard, pepper, and cinnamon. Fill it with cold water — about two ounces of cold water will do ; let it soak all night. Then put it over the fire, where it will boil slowly, and stir it until all the lumps are so soft that you can rub them to pieces. Then set it away in a dry place, until you want to use it. It will mould in a cellar, but will keep in a dry place, ten days in summer, and six weeks in winter. This gum is far better than Gum Arabic, glue, or any thing that I have used. Gum Arabic will crack, and leaves and flowers that are pasted upon paper with it, will also crack with the gum ; but Gum Tragacanth seems to be both elastic and tenacious ; AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 27 like India rubber in these respects. Should it be- come a little mouldy, boiling it again with a few drops of water added to it, will make it again fit for use. " Here are gifts the poor may offer ; Wealth no lovelier gift can proffer. Flowers show a taste refined, Thoughtful heart, and spirit kind. JSTeVer lead a wish astray, Feed not pride, nor vain display. Let the rich, with heart elate, Deck their homes with gilt and plate : Eicher ornaments are ours — We will dress our homes with flowers ; And no terror need we feel Lest the thief break through to steal. These are playthings for the child, Gifts of love for maiden mild, Comfort for the aged eye, Every one's best luxury. James F. Clerke. 28 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, CHAPTER SEVENTH. SECTION" FIKST. DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING A WREATH OF LEAVES OR FLOWERS LIKE THE COLORED ENGRAVINGS *IN THIS BOOK. Spread a newspaper on your table and have a towel at hand. Procure a sheet of stiff Bristol board, or card-board, which can be had of any bookseller or stationer ; or, if you wish to save money, go to a bookbinder, and buy his large sheets of best w T hite pasteboard. The sheets of Bristol board are a quarter of a dollar for the smaller size, and a half- dollar for large sheets. The large sheet will only make two very small pictures, and the smaller sheet will only make one ; while one sheet of pasteboard will make two good-sized pictures, and costs but ten or twelve cents. Take a piece of waste paper, and cut it to the exact size of your pasteboard ; when you have cut that as large as you wish your picture to be, then fold your paper double. Cut from the centre of it, a circular or oval piece, jusl which AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 29 yon fancy ; then unfold it, and lay it over your paste- board ; taking care that their edges meet exactly. Thus Plate 1 is a sheet of card-board, and Plate 2 s~ ~*x ( \ * t v.. .y Plate 1. Plate 2. Plate 3. represents the paper with the circular piece cut out. You can readily see, that by laying the paper down on the card-board, and just making a dot once every two inches with a lead pencil, upon the card- board to indicate the circle, you will have when you remove the paper, a perfect guide in the dots, where to paste your leaves, as you see it in Plate 3. If you draw one heavy continuous line around the circle, and then should leave any little part of it uncovered with your flowers or leaves, it would look badly. This mode of drawing a circle, is better than to take a bowl or other round thing, and lay it down on the card-board, to dot one by, for it is import- ant to have the circle exactly in the centre of the card-board, so that your wreath may be equally dis- tant from the margin upon both sides of the card- board. Have your little pot of Gum Tragacanth pre- 30 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES J pared beforehand, and ready for use. You will have to use your fingers to put the gum on the flowers and leaves, as they are brittle and will crumble easily. Put a mite of the gum on the back side of your leaf, and on one side of the cup or calyx of your flower ; stick it down on the card-board near the top of the centre of your dotted circle. Thus, as in Plate 1. Then break off the stem, if it is so long as to Plate 1. Plate 2. /•- .-***"'""^"»«. 3§j ^» S ^ \ • i i i v / ••^^y more than just hide itself under the upper edge of the next flower or leaf you are to put on. Now put on another leaf, just lapping it a little over the stem of the last one : keep on doing thus, until you are half round the circle. Let your last leaf at the bottom have a good long stem, and leave it on. The leaves and flowers should be narrow at the top of the picture, grow wider at the side, and AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 31 be a little narrower again at the bottom. You will do well to have the colored engraving before you, when making one. Now begin at the top of the circle on the other side, thus, as in Plate 2 ; and keep adding leaves and flowers, letting them over- lap each other a little until you meet the other half of your wreath at the bottom of the circle. These directions are sufficient for a wreath either of leaves or flowers ; and any, one, even a child, after mak- ing two or three, will be able to make beautiful ones. Section Second. — Orescent op Leaves. A piece of stiff common pasteboard may be cut in the form of a half-moon, thus : And then glue autumn leaves that have been var- nished, upon it, until- it is covered. Begin at the top of one horn of the crescent, and glue on leaves until you are half way around ; then begin at the 32 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, top on the other side, and paste on leaves until you get to where you left off glueing them on the other leaf. When dry, nail it up with tacks, the open side up, if placed under a picture, and the open side down, if placed over a picture. If you have no picture, under or over which you wish to have the crescent, nail it as you like. As these crescents require no frame, they are pe- culiarly suited to those who do not wish to be at that expense, and a whole circle or oval wreath may be cut out in the same way, thus, as in the Plate, of any size that you may prefer, and hung any- where you please upon a wall, having autumn leaves pasted on them as directed above. Stars and ini- tial letters also require no framing. Section Third. — Decorations for the tops of win- * DOWS, DOORS, AND ARCHES. There are two plates, showing two different forms for cutting pasteboard, to be covered with var- AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 33 lushed autumn leaves glued on, and then when dry to he tacked over a door or window or arch. These are very pretty (see pages 44, 45, and 46) in a bed- room. A hoard can he nailed over the window to project a little in front of the curtains, and a straight strip of stout pasteboard can be covered with leaves, and form a very pretty cornice for white muslin cur- tains,"* being nailed on to the board after they are glued upon the pasteboard. If there is no board nailed upon the window-frame to project a little in front of the curtain, then, every time you move your curtains the edges .of your leaves will break ; but with the projecting board, the curtains will swing beneath the board, and not hit and crumble the points and edges of the leaves. Bunches of leaves, and small boughs of them pinned or tacked upon a white wall, or over a paper that has no flowers upon it, are pretty. / ■fife % ^ijSr l^t 1 > ^ ^ X 3 I 34 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES ) CHAPTEE EIGHTH. DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING A PICTURE IN THE FRAME OF A BOUQUET. WITH FLOWERS, OR LEAVES, OR GRASSES, OR A BASKET-PICTURE OF EITHER SORT. Take a piece of thick paper, and fold it double ; then mark in the centre of it, near the bottom, the outline of half a basket or vase, thus, as in Plate 1 ; cut the piece thus marked out and unfold the paper. It will give you, as in plate 2, the outline of the vase. Plate 1. Plate 2. Plate 3. /""' — % « { - 1 • \ 4 * /T^ *'-■ . . s' s?\ © VJ V Lay this paper down upon the card-board upon which you wish to make your picture. Now draw this outline on your card-board with a lead pencil. You can do all this in less time than I have taken to tell you how. Now take your leaves, or flowers, or THE BOQUET OF THE FIELDS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 35 I grasses, and arrange them in the form of a bouquet, beginning at the top of the bouquet, if you wish to make it of leaves or flowers. Perhaps it would be well to dot the outline of the bouquet before com- mencing it, as in Plate 3, for a guide to your eye, to glue on the leaves and flowers, in the right places. Proceed to put on one flower or leaf after another, covering the stems of the first row with the top of the leaves in the second layer. If you use grasses, all the stems must reach down into the vase, and be cut off below the upper rim of the vase. If you use flowers or leaves, your last layer at the bottom must have its stems enter the vase, and reach- ing below its upper rim. When this is all done, take pieces of lichens, of different colors, and glue them on to the vase part of the picture, so as just to reach to the pencilled outlines of your vase. By studying the colored engravings in this book a lit- tle, after reading these directions, any one will learn how to go to work to make them. Some persons buy little toy baskets made of wil- low, and iron them flat, and sew the under half of the basket upon the card-board, and then paste on leaves, or flowers, or grasses, so as to look like a little basket really filled with them, having all the \ 36 LEAF AKD IXOWEB PICTURES, stems of the grasses and flowers enter the basket, and these are very pretty. It will be well, when making these things, to look often at the colored engravings, which will make the directions that are given more clear and more easily followed. If you think my directions are not clear, just sit down and try to write them more clearly, and you will then find how difficult a thing it is to do, and will excuse me, I am sure. AND HOW TO MAKE Til EM. 37 CHAPTER NINTH. CROSSES. These can be made by first drawing the outline of a cross upon Bristol board. If you are going to frame it, do not cut it out ; but if you wish to avoid the expense of framing, you can cut out of the pasteboard, the form of a cross. Commence at the outer end of one arm of the cross, and glue on leaves overlapping each other until you reach the upright part of the cross. Then begin at the outer end of the opposite arm of the cross, and do the same. Then begin at the top of the body, or upright part of the cross, and glue on leaves overlapping each other until you reach the bottom of the cross. Then glue on a large flat flake of lichen, for a fore- ground ; then if you have any delicate running mosses preserved, take fibres of them and trail them up from the lichen at the bottom, so as to imitate a vine twining around the cross, and wreath- ing itself upon the arms; and now and then a 38 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, festoon hanging down, or an end of a branch of the vine. By studying the engraving you can easily make this, and it is a pretty design, either to make for a frame, or to cut out, and hang upon a wall as you would a crescent or a star. Hortus Siccus, or Herbarium. Get a blank book of unruled writing paper. The larger it is the better, yet one a foot square will do to begin with. Press your flowers in some other old book care- fully, according to the directions in Chapter Third, on selecting and pressing flowers. When your flower, or leaf, or moss is dried, take one specimen, and fasten it, by putting a mite of Gum Tragacanth upon the back of it, in the centre of a page in your Herbarium; write beneath it, the time when and the place where you gathered it. Wipe off any gum that is left on the paper, after the flower is pressed down upon it firmly, with a clean soft hand- kerchief or towel. Thus in a few years you will have a charming book, especially if you make it a rule to press at least one leaf or flower in every THE HERBARIUM ■HB AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 39 place you visit. Your Herbarium will then not only be a beautiful collection of lovely natural ob- jects, but a mute remembrance of all the pleasant places you have visited, and the pleasant people you have seen. These who are fond of poetry, can write on each alternate leaf, any poetical descrip- tion of the flower they have pressed, that they fancy. Miss Landon has a few lines that are just the thing to write on the fly leaf opposite a specimen of Violets in an Herbarium : " Violets ! deep blue Violets April's loveliest coronets. There are no flowers born in the vale, "Wooed by the sunshine, waved by the gale, None by the dew of the twilight wet, Sweet as the deep blue Violet." L. E. L. A young friend tells me, that he adds to the variety and beauty of his Hortus Siccus, by catching occasionally a gorgeous butterfly: this he kills. Then he lays the butterfly on a page of his book, and carefully draws the outline of it. Then he pulls off the wings with great care ; and having with a soft, small hair brush, laid a very thin coating of linn id Gum Arabic upon the place outlined for the 40 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, wings, he lays the wings right side down, upon the gum arabicked outline ; when dry, he removes them carefully with the blade of a knife ; and the down, or feathers of the butterfly, all remain upon the gum arabicked place just as if painted ; a per- fect facsimile of the insect's wings. He then India inks or paints a body, and thus has a much better butterfly, and one less liable to get injured, than if he had pressed and dried the insect itself in the ordinary way. This is a delicate operation, and only nice and careful hands can do it well. It is said that upon the Spanish Main a plant grows whose flower or leaf is so exact a likeness of a butterfly with its wings outspread, and all the most brilliant hues of that insect are so perfectly copied, that when it is pressed, one can hardly dis- tinguish it from a pressed butterfly. Many wild flowers and leaves, that are found in the woods as early as the first of May, are beautiful to preserve in a Hortus Siccus. I would here say that a magni- AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 41 fying glass in a stout frame, is a most delightful companion in the country out of doors. Every leaf, flower, and insect — and, by the sea-side, every moss and shell, are made to reveal their wonderful structure and beauty more clearly by using this sim- ple and cheap substitute for a microscope. Mosses are especially beautified by its use, and a butterfly's wing, placed beneath this glass, becomes a mira- culous thing. As an instance of what one may behold out of doors, if his eyes are only open, I will tell you, that last summer, as I was sitting upon the piazza- steps with my sewing, I saw crawling lazily along, an uncommonly ungainly and awkward bug, an inch in length. He was " solid substantial black, an ebon mass." "What an ugly, repulsive look- ing bug," I thought. I looked again, and lo ! on the creature's brow just over his eyes, was a spot of gold ; the perfect picture of a butterfly with out- spread wings ! Here was a black crawling crea- ture, bearing, like a crown, the perfect likeness of a higher race of being ; the exact outline of a winged aerial form, stamped in gold upon his brow * f and I thought : " Why may not creatures a little in advance of this insect in the scale of being, be 42 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, bearing about unnoticed, some such golden seal, the foreshadowing image of a higher state, the clearly pictured likeness of a more glorious form ?" After I had seen his crown, the bug was no longer ugly to my eyes, or repulsive to my feelings. SEA-WEEDS AST) MOSSES. " Deep in the wave is a coral grove Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove ; Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, That never are wet with falling dew : But in bright and changeful beauty shine Far down in the green and glassy brine. There with its waving blade of green, The. sea-flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter. There with a light and easy motion, The fan coral sweeps through the clear deep sea ; And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea ; And life, in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the waves his own." Percival. s v 5 S ) < O ff! I-' o I ! &4 * AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 43 CHAPTER TENTH. SEA-WEEDS AND MOSSES. . Any person who lias the privilege of being by the sea-side in summer, can, when bathing, or at low tide, gather from the rocks, many varieties of beautiful mosses. You may let these dry without any care, except not to crush or crumble them, if your time is all occupied at the sea-side, and can take them home with you in a paper box. Even six months afterwards you can take them out, and by throwing them into a basin of tepid water, and allowing them to soak three or four hours, they will swell and regain their original form and color. Do not have your water too warm, or allow them to soak too long ; for if you do, they will get tender and fall in pieces, and then you can do nothing with them. When they have swelled to their full size, and every fibre is floated out, as rapidly as possible remove them, one at a time, from the water, by plac- ing beneath them (with your hand) a sponge 44 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, covered with a bit of fine muslin, and lifting them quickly out. When the water has drained from the moss into the sponge, take hold firmly of each side of the muslin, having first your card-board or sheet of paper ready. Turn the moss carefully and swiftly over upon the page. Take a bodkin and straighten and arrange each tiny, thread-like fibre, as it grew in the water. Now lay a sheet of blotting-paper carefully over it, so as not to move a fibre, if possi- ble ; add tw^o or three more layers of blotting-paper, and pass an ivory paper-folder flat over the surface of the blotting-paper, to make it absorb any moist- ure that may be left. Eemove the blotting-paper. Straighten once more, with a bodkin, any displaced fibre. Lay the paper or card-board in a large book, (a music-book will do.) Put a fresh piece of blot- ting-paper carefully over it ; shut the book carefully, and leave it to dry. It is better to soak only one bit of sea-moss at once ; for it is fussy, and takes a good deal of time to do one piece nicely, and one gets tired of it after doing one. If you soak more bits than you press, you will have to throw them away, as they get too tender to be dried, and afterwards soaked again. In two or three days your specimen will be perfectly dried, and ready to AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 45 transfer to your Herbarium, or basket of sea-mosses, which can be arranged just like a basket of grasses, flowers, or leaves. The above process is more es- pecially for the more delicate and fibrous mosses. Those that have pulpy leaves and tiny bladders, must be thoroughly cleansed in tepid water, and then dried upon a board that has had spread over it a few layers of blotting-paper, before the mosses are laid upon it. These will absorb the moisture from the plants ; examined through a mi- croscope, or powerful magnifying glass, these deli- cate mosses surprise one more and more, with the exquisite fineness of their texture, which no amount of magnifying can make appear coarse, and their hues rival the flaming color of the red cactus blos- soms, as well as the more delicate glow of the rose- colored varieties. 46 LEAE AND FLO WEE PICTURES, CHAPTER ELEVENTH. MOSS VASES. A little colored girl brought me, one summer, as a gift, (she was the child of my nurse, and named after me,) a beautiful moss vase made entirely, by herself and her younger brother. It was so very graceful and pretty that I asked her how she made it. She told me thus : Take a square piece of pine board an inch at least in thickness, and a foot square ; make another an inch smaller, square ; cut a square hole in the centre of each piece large enough to receive an up- right stick of pine, which is about an inch and a half square, and eighteen inches long. Glue the two first pieces together for the pedestal, then insert the long square stick, and glue that in firmly. Take a coarse straw hat, such as boys wear in summer. I believe they usually cost twenty-five cents. Get a piece of small wire, and sew it around the edge of the brim. Take a piece of narrow green or brown AIS T D HOW TO MAKE THEM. 47 ribbon, and rub a thin coat of your Gum Tragacanth on one side of it ; then cover the edge of the brim and the wire with it, pasting it on just as you would bind it, with half the width of the ribbon on the upper side, and half on the lower side of the brim. If you prefer, you can sew this ribbon on ; the wire keeps it firm, and in shape longer, and the ribbon conceals the edge neatly, which it would be difficult to do with the moss, although your moss must come as close as possible to the edge of the hat brim. An additional wire, sewed around the crown of the hat, just where you would put on a hat-band, would be an improvement, as without one it will be apt to get out of shape after a while. JSTow, nail your hat upside down on to the top of the long square stick of pine. It will be well to do this before glue- ing the stick into the pedestal, and putting on bits of leather, an inch square, one inside the hat-crown and the other beneath it outside ; when you drive your nail, it will make it much more secure, and keep your straw from getting torn out from the nail ; it must be a shingle-nail, and driven exactly through the centre of the hat-crown. The accompanying plate will explain better than words can, how it is all done. 48 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, The whole outer surface of the straw hat, and the stick, and the pedestal, was covered with lichens, of all colors, glued on, and the inside of the brim of the hat was covered as well as the outside. No one who did not see it, could believe how beautiful a vase was thus easily and cheaply manufactured from these simple materials. I used to put a small, light earthen bowl inside the hat-crown, and fill it with flowers ; and it was the glory of my parlor for years. j Be careful to use lichens, which are nearly flat, for this purpose ; mosses will not answer. Directions for making ferns and autumn leaves UPON A WHITE WALL, BY THE SIDE OF A WINDOW THAT HAS NO DRAPERY CURTAINS. Have a step-ladder, and commence at the top. You can glue the leaves on, as a mite of Gum Tra- gacanth stuck upon the back of each leaf will keep it in place for years. The gum should be made quite a thick paste for this purpose. One little daub of paste on the back of each leaf will be enough for all except the Fern leaves, which will need two or three. Lap the last leaf you put on over the stem of the first one, as you come down the » - • JWW--S f B ■ I 5 .• 3KJ55» . * 'KqT'fsmF* s Mj JV -. 3)©' Dffi^ SIM AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 49 wall, and if you have the engraving before you, you can hardly fail to make a pretty decoration. You need large Maple, and all sorts of leaves, green and colored, and plenty of Fern leaves, large and small, and some boughs of bright leaves, and boughs of green leaves. Your boughs may need to have one or two carpet-tacks driven into the wall through their thickest stems, in order to hold them firmly. 1 Cut the above pattern, or one similar to it, out of stiff pasteboard. Glue autumn leaves over it, com- mencing at the bottom of the wreath, (which can 50 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, be cut separate,) and going up to the top, lapping each leaf a little over the stem of the last one you put on ; then begin at one end of the crescent-shaped piece, and cover it with leaves until you reach the centre ; then commence at the other end of the cres- cent, and glue on leaves until you come back to the centre. The crescent and the wreath can be made separate and nailed together when you put them up, over a door or window or arch, as it is shown in the next plate. This decoration is merely two straight strips of AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 51 pasteboard covered with autumn leaves, glued on, and then nailed above a door or a window, with a bunch of leaves suspended from the crossing. Decorations of Dried Leaves and Flowers, for Walls and Windows. As some object to pasting, or tacking leaves upon a wall, the same effect can be produced by cutting strips of pasteboard and sewing or pasting them together, curving them irregularly, in and out, as the main stem of any hardy vine grows ; sew or paste on branches, if you like ; then commence at the top, and glue on your leaves until you have reached the bottom. To cover the branches, begin at the end that is farthest from the main stalk, and cover it with leaves in the same way. A single tack, or one bit of putty, at the top of this, and one at the bottom, and if very long, one in the centre, will keep it in place on the wall. Circlets, or rings of pasteboard, larger or smaller, in proportion to the size of the window, or the wall which you wish to decorate, can be covered with leaves ; and by means of two or three loops of tape sewed on the back of the paste- board before any leaves are glued on, they may, when ft - 52 LEAF AND FLOWEK PICTUKES, covered, be fastened by a pin or tack, to a window or a wall, and they are very beautiful. A "Window Screen Take a piece of white or green Tarleton or gauze, the size of the inside of your window, or the size of one of the sashes only ; paste on to this, with Gum Tragacanth, or Gum Arabic, a border of strips of pasteboard two inches wide, all around it ; paste also in the centre a ring, or a round piece of paste- board ; when dry, begin at one corner, and paste leaves on all around it ; make a wreath, on the cir- clet in the centre, or a bouquet, if you have pasted a round piece of pasteboard there ; pin it by the four corners into your window, and I shall be much disappointed if you do not say, it is the very prettiest screen you ever saw. I like the green Tarleton the best. Green silk muslin will make a thicker screen. I prefer green to white, both because it is a better contrast to the leaves, and because it does not get dusty and dingy so soon. AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 53 CHAPTER TWELFTH. HOW TO MAKE AND KEEP A FERNERY. An aquarium is an expensive and troublesome affair, and of doubtful success, except in very patient and very skillful hands ; hands also, that have not a thousand other daily necessary things to do ; but not so a Fernery. It is little trouble, little expense to make one, and requires, after it is made, but little attention to keep it perpetual. You can have them of any size that you choose ; of course the larger they are, the more they will cost. Any child can make a little bit of one, that shall cost less than twenty-five cents, and any lady can have a large one, that shall cost a hundred dollars. I will begin by telling how to make the cheapest one. Buy a common glass tumbler, the largest one you can find, or a clear white finger-bowl, of glass, or a little clear glass bell. Take a bit of board, and work some putty into a long roll, as large around as your little finger ; make a ring of this just as large around as the bottom of your tum- bler, bell, or bowl. Lay it down on your board, in a ft 54 LEAF AND FLOWEK PICTURES ? circle, make it stick to the board, and when it is about half-dry, wet the edge of your glass tumbler, bell, or bowl, and press it down in the centre of the ring of putty, so as to form a groove ; then take out your glass, and let the putty dry upon the board with the groove in it. When it is perfectly dry, you can set your glass into it, and it will be very nearly air- tight. If there is a turning-shop where you live, they will turn a groove for you, in your board, of the size of your glass, and it will cost no more than the putty. JS T ow take your basket into the woods, and fill it with mosses, ground pine, wild geraniums, wake-robins, wintergreens, and squaw-berry vines, anemones, coral cup mosses, little ferns, or any little plant, with tiny leaves and flowers, that you fancy. Dig them up carefully so as not to injure the roots. If you can find a small branch of dead wood that is moss-grown, break off a piece of it, as tall as your glass is, or nearly as tall. If you can't find such an one ready made, get a dead branch, take as much of it as will go under your glass, pry up some lichens off a stone, or fence, and paste them on to the branch, covering it with the moss. Gum Arabic will do to stick the moss on with. Now go home, and arrange within your circle of putty, or inside of your groove, a little fairy AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 5 garden, out of your plants ; put your moss-covered branch in the centre, leaning over on one side a little, and held up by a ground pine ; water these a little, put your glass on tightly, and it will grow so for three months, and perhaps more, without touching again. Vapor will rise inside the bell, collect in it into drops, and fall again on the plants. The winter- greens and squaw-berries will blossom, and bear berries, and the little flowers will bloom: You can tell if it needs water again, for if there is no vapor or dew collecting for two days inside the bell, then you must take off the glass and water it a little ; then put on the glass again, and it will go so three months more. You will not need any earth except what sticks to the roots of the plants, when you dig them from the woods. Too much earth will make the glass liable to burst. If you have got two dollars to spend, you can buy a glass bell two feet high, and a foot in diameter for seventy-five cents, I believe ; and you can get a standard turned for it out of wood, with a groove in it, the size of the glass, for a dollar more ; and at any green-house, if you have no woods to go to, you can buy some little mosses, and bits of flowers, and green things, that will make it very pretty. You must of course buy plants in their roots, or they will ■ 56 LEAF AND FLO WEE PICTURES, not grow. A still larger and more elegant one, can be made by having a table grooved, and a bell of glass blown, large enough to fit into the groove ; then fill the space inside the groove in the same way as you fill the small ones, only of course you can in- troduce larger plants, and more of them. Wild flowers and plants flourish best in these ferneries. Some persons have their table made with a rim, from one to two inches deep, and in the top of the rim is the groove for the glass bell that is to cover it ; then they fill with gravel, and little bits of decayed wood and soil from some forest, the whole inside of the table up to the level of the top of the rim. On one side they scoop a hollow, for a little lake ; this they line with small white pebbles and shells, then plant the wild flowers, ground pine, ferns, etc., around, and arrange a mossy branch, and lean it on a miniature rock, and put a little soil on top of that, and plant things there, and make a little kind of fairy lake, and woods, and pleasure-grounds of the whole, then cover it with the glass, and it will last so for years, and only needs watering when the dew ceases to col- lect inside the bell. All Ferneries must be kept in a room where nothing ever freezes, for freezing will break the glass bell that covers the plants. h AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 57 Ivy in the House. Keep a slip of Ivy in water for a fortnight or even for a month in the spring, then plant it in a pot of earth, and set it in a window where it will have the most light, and if possible, the sun. It will grow nearly a foot a month. Tie a black thread of linen or silk at intervals upon the stalk, a yard apart or more, and be careful to tie loosely, so as not to rub or cut the bark ; fasten these loops with a pin into the win- dow-sash, or wood-work, wherever you may wish to train it ; in two or three years it will run up by the side of a door, or a window, and across the top, and finally run down the opposite side, forming a perfect green border all around the door or window beside which it grows. There is no ornament more graceful and beautiful than this, for any room, be it a parlor, study, dining, or bed-room. Of course the dark glossy leaves will show to better advantage on a white wall, or a light paper, or around mouldings painted white ; but it decorates Oak as well, and is beautiful wherever it is put. Light is absolutely essential to it, and the more 58 LEAF A1STD FLOWER PICTURES, light it has, the more rapidly it will grow, and the more perfect will all its leaves be. It needs water once a day. It will grow perfectly well, although not so rapid- ly, in a room where there is a fire only half the clay all winter. One lady has an Ivy which has been growing sev- eral years in the house. It commences at the foot of one window, runs to its top, crosses the top, fes- toons to the next window, crosses that, and runs quite down upon the other side of it to the floor ; thus garlanding with perennial green, the whole side of a large room. My own plant was only potted last spring, and is but five feet tall. I have therefore taken a bronze stand that has a bowl to it, and which is about three feet high. Into this I have set my Ivy ; thus mounted, it makes out to reach the top of my door, and has gladdened our eyes all winter. The common brown pot in which it grows, I covered with flat lichens, with branches of crisp moss, and with turfs of long- bearded moss, some of which I gathered a year ago, from the trees at Leukerbade, in Switzerland. At Leuk there is a walk to "Les Echelles" through the woods at the base of a range of perpendicular hills "I AKD HOW TO MAKE THEM. 59 Up the side of one precipice, you can go from crag to crag, upon slender ladders, of which there are ten, until you reach the top. The trees all along this walk are hung with thesebrai dsof moss. In Virginia forests, I have seen the same thing, and any one who w r ill take pains to hunt for them, may find almost any where, upon rocks and old fences, by the side of ponds and forests, abundance of mosses, and he will be surprised at their variety and beauty. By all means collect them to stick upon brown pots, with bits of putty, covering them entirely, and to lay over the unsightly clods of earth, quite to the stalks of the plants ; they adorn every thing they touch, and in a conservatory, and upon a shelf, or set of stairs, the common ugly-looking brown pots and black earth are converted by this simple means into an addition- al ornament, almost supplying the place of the liv- ing grass and moss, amidst and from which the flowers spring in the fields, and in the woods. Putty is the best thing I have tried to stick them on to the pots with, as it adheres firmly to the pottery, and hardens with time. I tried Gum Tragacanth, but it did not answer at all. I find that sulphur, or brimstone, powdered and sprinkled over the earth in my pots of flowers and upon my plants, is an effec- 60 LEAF AXD FLOWER PICTURES, tual exterminator and preventive of those odious little green bugs, that tried my patience so long, and almost disgusted me even with the flowers on which they crawled so thick. One lovely fuchsia that I had, had become really unsightly, with the myriads of these ugly little wretches ; but in a week after I had sprinkled the plant, and strewn the earth with powdered brimstone, not a bug was to be seen ; that was six months ago, and not one could be found upon any of my plants since that time. It is far less trou- blesome, and far more effectual, than smoking, or any other remedy I have ever seen tried, giving and leaving less odor. There is one advantage in having pots of Ivy, in rented houses. They are easily moved from house to house, and do not break our hearts having to leave them behind, with all the care we have taken of them, and all their pleasant associations with our home, as do the plants and trees we have placed in the gardens, and which are too deeply rooted, or too delicate to be transplanted. If one leaves a city house where they are, for the summer, all that needs to be done, is to set the pots out of doors, and the rain and the sun will take care of the Ivy for you, until you return. The leaves to mine, get dusty, and BD AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 61 I wipe them off once a month, with a wet cloth. I can only hope you will set one growing, and enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed mine. In many parts of Switzerland, the Ivy grows wild . in the woods, and is as common, and seems as hardy as the ground-pine does in JSTewvEngland. Of course, large well-grown plants can be bought, which will at once take their place over a door or window, as the chief elegance in a room, but those who buy them thus far on their way to perfection, will have the joy of see- ing them grow, and that sort of feeling one gets by watching the coming out of each leaf. The leaves to mine, when set in a window, all turned towards the glass ; I whirled it about, so that they all turned into the room ; but the next day, the instinct of the leaves had twisted each stalk around, until, as at first, each leaf faced the light. Ivy will flourish out of doors, through the winter, in New T -York, but not in the colder portions of New- England. Whenever the winters are no colder than they are in England, or in Germany, it will do well out of doors. In Heidelberg, where the Neckar freezes so as to bear skating parties in winter, the Ivy grows most luxuriantly out of doors, and it forms one great ornament to the castle ruins. One can 62 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, easily see that hardly a more beautiful thing could be had to train over the door or window that leads from a parlor into a conservatory, than a pot of Ivy, and in all piazzas that are glazed in, as a protection to plants in winter, the Ivy, with little care, and no fear that frost will hurt it, will transform such a place into a green and leafy bower, lovely as June. i AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 63 POSTSCRIPT. I call alike, upon utilitarian Americans and upon luxurious and idle ones, upon young and old, rich and poor, to lay down the coverlet and worsted nee- dles, the broom and the spoon, to leave housework or sewing, tailoring, shoe-making, and manufactur- ing of all kinds, and even to leave the endless prac- tising upon harp or piano, the copying of pictures with crayons, or painting abominations in oils ; leave any thing you may happen to be about, and give one hour in the day, or one hour in the week, to hunt with me in the undergrowth of the woods, or saunter beneath trees, or look by the roadside as you walk, either for pleasure, or to and from your daily work, or your daily school ; find some leaf or flower, or blade or spear of grass, and look it in the face until you know it by heart, and love it : and then press it carefully, to help give you glad thoughts and beautiful sights in those long gloomy winter hours that will soon be coming after the summer is gone ! 64 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, You who live in cities and have no green places to walk in, nor gardens to grow beauties in, surely in some old cask, or box, or broken pitcher, you can put a shovelful of earth, and have a Violet or two, a common blue Larkspur, or some oats, or grass, or a Geranium; something to speak to you of the beauti- ful works of God, while it is growing, or, when pressed and dried, to hang upon your wall through the winter, as a reminder that summer has been, and as a promise that it again will be. Ye who give gifts to the poor, give them sometimes a pot of flowers to tend, or a bouquet of flowers to press. It will do them good, and you too. God has implanted the same love of flowers in their hearts that he has put in yours. Cultivation will improve it, as cultiva- tion and familiarity have improved yours. How can a child or a man love flowers who has never had one to love ? Of all gifts to the sick poor, a pot of flowers is the most valued, and a wreath of flowers or leaves made to hang in the sick-room of some poor child of God, who pines and dies slowly, either in winter, or far from all pleasant sights, would it * not be like the gift of a cup of cold water, that can not fail of its reward ? A little thoughtful charity like this may be given by those who have not money, •• AKD HOW TO MAKE THEM. 65 or any thing more valuable, to bestow. All who in- tend to embroider or to make designs for dresses ; all who make patterns for carpets and papers for houses ; all artists and painters in fresco ; all who are to ornament china, glass, or silver ; all who are to paint ornamental designs upon furniture ; all en- gravers on gold and silver ; all jewellers and manu- facturers in bronze, silver, gold, or plated ware ; all who are to make artificial flowers of any sort, and leaves, and fruits ; all who are to illustrate books, or engrave their illustrations, and many more, can have no teacher like the leaves, and flowers, and grasses, the works of " the Highest." All other works, however beautiful and celebrated, are but cojyies of His works ; and feeble imitations, even the most renowned of them are. The best masters in every one of these arts, have learned their skill by studying what some persons call the " works of na- ture,' 7 but what any child of God, must call the works of his own " Heavenly Father.' ' Every leaf, and flower, and grass that is pressed in summer, can be left until winter to be arranged. Oh ! how many happy, guileless hours I have spent with the blessed leaves and flowers. I have learned to thank God for every leaf and flower, and stem of 66 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, feathery grass. To my soul each one is a gospel of " good will, and peace, and love," a silent promise " That He who careth for the flowers, Will care much more for me." * Many boys and girls in Europe, travelling in Great Britain, Switzerland, or elsewhere, with their teach- ers, or making pedestrian tours, carry a book in which to press flowers and leaves. If American boys and girls would not scorn this refined and ele- vating pursuit, they would gain in cultivated taste and appreciation of natural beauty, and consequent- ly in true refinement, becoming thus more really " gentlemen and gentlewomen." The Son of the Highest, when He walked the earth in human form, drew lessons of wisdom and love from the flowers ; and never until we love them and make companions of them, shall we know their power to cheer, to teach, and to inspire our souls. The most skillful artist, when he comes to paint out his thought for the world to read, will only reproduce that magic harmony and contrast of colors, that he has caught in the woods and gardens of the Lord. Our Creator says, that he made our souls in his own *• . AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 6? likeness ; therefore, what he took pleasure in mak- ing, and pronounced "very good," we shall take pleasure in beholding ; and if we will but get suffi- ciently well acquainted with them, to appreciate the marvellous skill they show, we shall exclaim ever more and more intelligently in the inspired language of David : " Lord ! how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all" Poets say that God has written out some of his most beautiful thoughts in the flowers, as a man writes out his thoughts in letters and words. Let us, then, by fre- quent spelling and reading over many times these beautiful expressions of the thoughts of our God, daily learn to read more distinctly and clearly His infinite wisdom, love, and power. How a child's heart, that is away at boarding- school in a cold northern climate, will leap within him when he sees even the most stinted and imper- fect blossoms of such plants as grew in his sunny southern home ! Even so, although the fairest flower that blooms now on the earth bears only a dwarfed and faded resemblance to those of our primal home in Eden, still they remind us of that glory from which we are now exiled. Shall they not also awaken in our souls a heavenly home-sickness, a longing for 68 LEAF AND FLOWER PICTURES, the paradise to come, for a return to that forfeited inheritance which our Eedeemer has bought back from the hands of Eternal Justice, and which He promises to restore to all those w T ho love Him, and who long to see Him coming, bringing with him the " Holy City' 7 and its glorious garden ; bringing it from God, out of heaven down to earth and man ? He is not only the Redeemer of lost man, but the re- storer of his lost paradise, and to both, like a king, he restores more than was lost. Should not every tree we see remind us of that Tree of Life, that is even now growing in that com- ing Eden? Should not every pale and perfumed flower make us long, with all the heart-yearning of a homesick child, for the hastening of the time when we may be permitted to gather the flowers that even now are springing to welcome us by that " river of the water of life," that waters even now the garden of our God ? I am sure you will not call this " a digression" when you read in his own word that " by his Son he made all things ; that for his pleasure they are ; and for his pleasure they were created." Shall we not take pleasure in the things that please him ? Surely, the more like him we are, the more pleasure we shall take in whatever he created for AKD HOW TO MAKE THEM. 69 his own delight ; and we shall give him all the glory, not only of the creation itself, but also of the delight that we take in it ; for had he not created us capa- ble of taking pleasure in that which delights him, we should see no beauty in his works ; so that who- ever takes praise to himself for his own apprecia- tion of the works of God, " robs God of the glory," and ''glories in himself. 71 I fear that some of us, for want of thought, and also perhaps for want of humility, have a pharisaical w r ay of saying to ourselves : " Thank God, I am not as others are, stupid and insensible to all the beauty he has thrown around me, but having a more cultivated and refined taste than others, /can enjoy it." Bather let us go to school to the lilies of the valley, and learn humil- ity, and go to His word and learn to praise him for the gifts of eyes to see and souls to feel. For not flowers alone, " but every good and perfect gift Com- eth down from God," the former of our spirits and maker of all beautiful things. I C 4 »