Then take them carefully with the paper knife or spatula to a clean sheet of stiff white paper, and keep from dust and moisture till they can be wrought into the intended design. The outline of the design1 should be drawn in pencil upon the card-board it is to occupy. Within this, brush lightly gum tragacanth of the consistence of mucilage. Place the flowers thereon, and gently touch them here and there with the tip of a dry camel's hairbrush to affix them. Put no gum upon the flowers or the leaves, or other verdure that accompanies them; the gum must only be applied to the card-board. When glazed and framed these floral designs make handsome cabinet pictures.

Flowers dried in the fullness and symmetry of natural form, with their colors as brilliant as when living, are available for all sorts of ornamentation; for the most experienced eye can scarcely detect the least difference between them and freshly gathered blossoms. In all their flowing lines of grace, leaflet and bud curving and drooping as when attached to the parent stalk, they may be seen in the accompanying engraving, where, with crystallized grasses commingling their lustres, an elegant coiffure__ladies' head-dress - is represented: It is a very tasteful and becoming affair, designed for evening full dress.

The articles needed for drying flowers in rotondity of form are, river, lake or sea sand (this is called white sand, it is sometimes of a bluish grey tint), a wire sieve with a wooden cover to fit its base, a paper knife and a camel's hair pencil. The flowers for this method of preservation, as for flat drying, must be freshly plucked, and without dew or any other dampness. Everything about this work moft be thoroughly clean. The sand must be nibbed and rinsed in clean water till the water flowing through it is as clear as that from a well. Then put it in clean crockery dishes to dry. It must be perfectly dry and just blood-warmth when the flowers occupy it.

When the sand is of the right temperature, close the cover over the base of the sieve, and pour it in till it fills the whole space beneath the wire cloth. Place the flowers in an upright or natural position by inserting their stems in the apertures of the wire-cloth till they rest firmly in this sand below. Do not crowd them, nor, if sprays or panicles are dried, let the flowers overlap each other to injure their form. Fold a sheet of stiff white paper to make a cone-shaped tunnel, and pour the warm sand through this around and under and within the flowers. The cone should be folded to give the smallest possible stream of sand, and it must be poured with great care and gentleness, especially within and among the heliotrope florets, and the heaths and other smalt flowers. It is a slow and careful operation. Within the bells of mahernia, among the spireas, deutzias, acacias, verbenas, lantanas, bouvardias, and the like, special attention must be given to cause the sand in falling to fill all vacancies and to support every portion of the flower correctly. The sepals and corolla of fuchsias require nice management, or, rather, patience enough to allow time to pour the sand properly.

Roses and japonicos also must have a particular pains given to preserving the curves of their petals; sometimes the edge of the paper knife or the tip of the hair pencil is needed to hold or raise them while the sand is poured under and upon them to effect this. After filling in and under and around the flowers, sand must be sifted over them, warm, to the depth of half an inch. Then set the sieve where it will keep the temperature of 70° steadily, till the flowers are dry. The smallest flowers will dry in six hours; but the large, fall sorts, with thick petals, require ten, twelve or more to get thoroughly dried. For this reason those of about the same texture and size should occupy the sieve at one time. When it is reasonable to suppose that the flowers are dry, take the cover from the base of the sieve, and the sand will fall through the wires, leaving them as perfect in form as those in the bouquet here pictured, their colors as fair and bright as when placed in the sieve, yet dry and rigid. Leaves should be dried entirely by themselves, the thin and delicate sorts alone, because they are soon siccated; and the thicker ones also require to be treated separate from others.

The foliage of the myrtles and laurels give the best satisfaction; the more flexible and succulent species lose some color and often need to be superseded by moss or lycopodinm.

When both flowers and leaves are dry they may be clustered and tied like fresh . ones in garlands, crosses, bouquets or any other device; and as they need no moisture to keep them in fair and life-like appearance, are very desirable as grave decorations. In our illustration grasses are lending their airy grace to the group. A fall of lace paper to finish the setting gives elegance to this form of bouquet, which would serve admirably for a mantel vase, as well as for the hand, and could be made a handsome ornament for suspension. Baskets of flowers dried in this manner are very effective hanging in an arched doorway or window ; and nothing more beautiful can be designed for the dinner-table than an epergne filled with an assortment of these flowers tastefully arranged ; while as wall-decorations, bouquets or wreaths composed of a handsome variety, well contrasted, gummed to cardboard and then glazed and framed, lend a summer-like aspect to any apartment, and are a perpetual delight.

Preserved Flowers, properly speaking, are these dried flowers coated with wax, steariae, or paraffine. They closely resemble wax-work, but are less expensive. Of course the talent that is required for success in making wax-flowers is not needed for this work; only a certain tact and skill, gained almost wholly by experience, in manipulating the flowers, and in using the coating material.

When flowers are to be preserved they must first be dried in warm sand as directed above. Then melt white was, stearnie or paraffins - paraffine is preferable - to a fluid state, in a clean bowl, which rests in boiling water. Keep the water hot over a spirit-lamp, gas-jet or the stove, and then the fluid will be in right condition. Have the flowers conveniently near, in a flat dish, on which they can lie while the calyx and under part of their corolla is coated ; apply the melted paraffine with a camel's hair pencil, with light, careful touches and strokes. When these portions are nicely covered - just as little as possible of the coating must be used, yet all must be covered - take the flower by its stem in your left hand, and with the pencil drop the liquid paraffine in and about the various divisions, letting it flow as it will, but not enough to obliterate the finer parts; and then with quick, gentle touches finish the remainder of the flower. Proceed in the same way with the bads and the leaves.

When the color of the leaves is unsatisfactory, some persons color a little paraffins with paris green, and coat them with that. There is danger of making flowers and leaves too clumsy if the paraffine is not in a fluid state. Be sure to guard against this; and take care not to dim or bide the colors by too liberal applications of the fluid; there is less danger of this with paraffine, than with wax. because it is of a. more transparent nature.

Our engraving represents a group of these flowers arranged as a table decoration, with a fall of lace or of lace paper to droop over the edge of the epergne. They are very handsome for this purpose. Harps, crosses, wreaths or bouquets, composed of these preserved flowers, are very beautiful, but they need shielding or screening from the dust as much as wax flowers do. It is best to enclose them within a frame with glass front. Even with blossoms eternalized in this way lycopodium and moss must be used to fill vacancies between and among the flowers and buds.

Although when nicely done, these preserved flowers are elegant, and can withstand the influence of moisture, drought, cold, and a good degree of heat, yet those who prefer nature in her simplicity, will choose only the process of drying (the second method) for eternalising their floral treasures ; which, if not perpetuating their charms for a lifetime, as the last method does, yet renders them permanent for several years, and with careful shielding from changes of the atmosphere, by enclosure in an airtight frame under glass, they may display their beauty for a still longer period ; so that mother's bridal wreath may challenge comparison with Mary's, and Tom's button-hole bouquet may be stolen from his grand-mother's Mayday garland.