FLOWERS AS FOOD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 140, 20 July 1914, Page 4

FLOWERS AS FOOD.

Candied violets are now a product of some commercial importance. At Grasse, France, in which neighbourhood immense quantities of these flowers are grown, all the old and stale violets are sold to manufacturers of confectionery. In Roumania; violets, roses, and lime flowers .are utilised largely for flavouring preserves of different kinds. The most esteemed sherbet in Egypt is prepared by pounding violets and boiling them in sugar. This violet sherbet is of a green colour and is called the "Grand Signor's Sherbet. '' Rosebuds boiled in sugar and made into a preserve are eaten by Arabian women. In China dried rosebuds are used as a condiment. Rose petals are candied like violets, and so likewise, are jasmines. The common yellow pond lilies make delightful preserves, and from them the Turks prepare a cooling drink. These flowers have a perfume like that of brandy, and hence are sometimes called "brandy bottles." The species of lily known to

botanists as Thunbergi is one of the choicest delicacies of the Chinese kitchen.

By far the most remarkable of plants that produce edible flowers is the '' butter tree" of India. Its blossoms during the hot months of each year are the chief means of subsistence of the hill tribes of the interior. A goodsized tree yields several hundred-weight of the pulpy, bell-shaped flowers in a season. There are immense forests of these butter trees in India, and the flowers may some day become an important article of commerce. They are produced in vast quantities, affords ing drink as well as food to whole populations. They secrete more than half their weight in sugar, and yield a good deal of that substance for domestic use. A powerful alcoholic beverage, somewhat resembling Irish whisky in flavour, is distilled from them. Id India the young flowers of the banana plant are eaten. The Chinese prepare them by pickling them in vinegar. In India the flowers of a kind of sorrel, which have a pleasant - aeid taste, are made into tarts and jellies. The blossoms of the shaddock are used for flavouring sweetmeats in the same country. Cloves, so well known as an aromatic spice, are the dried flower buds of a tree. They get their name from the French word "clou," whieh means a nail, owing to their peculiar shape. They are collected by beating the tree with sticks, when the buds fall, and are caught on sheets.

THE NICETIES OF STYLE. There is a very great difference, as we all know, between "good style" and '' bad style'''; both are absolutely obvious and as far apart as the poles, the dividing line between the two being marked enough to make no possible; but, on the other hand, when one comes to consider what good or bad style actually consists of, the question becomes one that is less easy to explain, writes Janet Gray in the "Express. '' First of all, so much rests with the individual that the actual shape or colour of gowns and hats is only of secondary importance. Some people are born with an innate refinement that prohibits their wearing anything in the least common, and they dress in good style because it is quite impossible for them to do anything else, and then, again, of course there are people who are just the reverse, and unconsciously give to their appearance the touch here or there that bespeaks a less refined instinct. A woman gowned by the greatest costumier of the fashionable world can be '' bad'' style, while another, in homemade attire, shabby hat, and darned gloves, is infinitely her , superior. AN IMPORTANT ITEM. Then, again, * what ean safely be

worn by one person is absolutely impossible on another, and this particular point is one which' many women entirely overlook. " So-and-so ihas such a lovely hat; I must have one like it!" sayß Mrs X., and later appears in a faithful reproduction of the admired headgear that on her looks as outre and utterly e ' wrong I '' as the original looked chic and perfectly "right." In so many items of the toilette is this fact constantly observed by any one who is interested in the psychological side of these mundane matters. One person ean wear earrings of any size or length, while the same ornaments on another give an appearance of tawdry vulgarity that is unpardonable.

INDIVIDUAL TASTES. Some look well in low-cut collars and open necks in the daytime, others appalling in exactly the same style of neckwear. And why? It is by no means necessary that the one woman is in any way less better bred or lacking in refinement than the other. It is simply that those specific ornaments or collars were not her "style," and as stich she must deliberately eschew them. The personality or temperament, or even the build of figure and particular type of face of one person makes a certain colour or make of dress suitable to her, and her alone,, and for the same reason totally unsuitable to another. So, fair reader, there is not the least

use in trying to copy the details of your friend's attire if her individuality or type is different from yours, for ( it is highly probable that what suits her may never look even passable on you, not if you try *' ever 80|'' as the children say. i;

The golden rule in the art of dress is to find out what- style of attire in most becoming, andto stick to it, never attempting to copy others or to wear this or that because you have seen it worn effectively: by some Que else. If you will religiously keep, to what har-< monises with a»dL enhiuices ypur own personality, you "will never make the fatal mistakes so' noticeable among women every all unconsciously, , lowered their standard oi refinement its far as outward appearances go ? ;and give them, to the j effect that is so v much fo; be regretted. | Lastly, never |fiat this matter I of good taste in dress is a mere question of money. Money has nothing i whatever to do with it, for the spending |of hundreds yearly on the wardrobe will not make for perfection in style r if the wearer is herself - at fault in her choice of -attire, while, on the other hand, those with. the, most meagre of dress allowances' can retain a distinguished, well-bred appearance that is entirely apart from the actual monetary value of their clothes, and that no lack of expensive etceteras can ever take frem them.