FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL, MANUFACTURE OF

The art of representing by flowers, leaves, plants, ., vegetable nature in her ornamental productions, constitutes the busine of the artificial florist. The Italians appear to have been the first people in Europe who excelled in the art of making artificial flowers; but of late years the French have been most ingenious in this branch of industry. Ribbons folded in different forms and of different colours were originally employed for imitating flowers, by being attached to wire stems. This imitation soon gave way to that by feathers, which are more delicate in texture, and more capable of a uming a variety of flower-like figures. But a great difficulty was encountered in dyeing them with due vivacity. The savages of South America manufacture perfect feather flowers, derived from the brilliant plumage of their birds, which closely resemble the products of vegetation. The blo oms and leaves are admirable, while the colours never fade. The Italians employ frequently the cocoons of the silkworm for this purpose; these take a brilliant dye, preserve their colour, and po e a transparent velvety appearance, suitable for petals. Of late years, the French have adopted the finest cambric for making petals, and the taffeta of Florence for the leaves. M. de Bernard ière employs whalebone in very thin leaves for artificial flowers; and by bleaching and dyeing them of various hues, he has succeeded in making his imitations of nature to be very remarkable. The colouring matters used in flower dyeing are the following :— For red; carmine di olved in a solution of salt of tartar. For blue; indigo di olved in sulphuric acid, diluted and neutralized in part by Spanish whitening. For bright yellow; a solution of turmeric in spirit of wine. Cream of tartar brightens all these colours. For violet; archil, and a blue bath. For lilac; archil. Some petals are made of velvet, and are coloured merely by the application of the finger dipped in the dye.