To the Editor of the "Evening Mail."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 247, 29 October 1879, Page 2

To the Editor of the "Evening Mail."

A FLOWER V. A BOUQUET.—" THE GARLANDS, THE ROSK-ODOURS, AND THE FLOWERS." I j i i j

Sir—Among all the " institutions" for which Nelson has been noted from its settlement there is none surpassing its Flower Show — " beautiful exceedingly." Truly have flowers been termed " stars of the earth." Tbe following extract from the "Pillars of Hercules " on the love of flowers by the Moors may convey a hint to our fair bouquet formers at the next Show, and should it not reform altogether the " painted cauliflower" want of taste, it may somewhat modify it, and reduce enormity to simplicity: — "There is no botany —no horticulture; their taste is ignorant. Their love of flowers is not as they are arranged in classes, multiplied in leaves, or varied in colors; it is for themselves—their natural forms, their pure colors, and their sweet odors. It is unobtrusive and silent, or vocal only as in the verses of Solomon and the songs of the Troubadours. ' A man may be a good botanist, although he does not know the name of a single plant,' said Rousseau. ' The Easterns do not like to come empty-handed, and the commonest, aa the fairest, flowers suffice. But it is not a nosegay or a bouquet, but a. flower that they present. The leaf aud stem are to them just a9 beautiful as the bloasom, and a bnndle of beads of flowers would appear to them much like a heap of human heads. In the numerous Chinese figures and ornaments that encumber our tables and rooms, it may be observed that wherever there are three flowers they are single, each by itself in a vase. A piece of pottery has been brought to England from Greece ; it is unique, and no description has been discovered of it? uses. It is a vase of about four inches in diameter, surrounded with two circles of very small vases, which stand out from it; it is evidently for flowers and so placed that each should have its own stalk and vessel. The Moors have also a flower-dish tor the room ; the top in pierced pottery, so that each stands by itself. One of the things which in Europe Jhave shamed us most in the presence of an Eastern is the bouquet, or painted cauliflower head, in the bauds of a lady. Alas! that perverakm of taste should always fasten on her fairest subjects!"—l am, &c, E. T.