ant. Cut the leaves closely off the stem and immerse them in a
solution of cold water and castile soap. Leave them in this twelve
hours before using. Melt the wax to the consistency of cream, in
chrome green, permanent green, dark olive-green, and verdigris-green.
Now take a leaf out of the soapsuds and lay it on a marble slab,
keeping the under surface or veined side uppermost; then with a
camel's-hair brush lay on the melted wax in different shades,
following the shades of the natural leaf. The soapsuds having made the
leaf transparent, all the shades and spots can be plainly seen on the
veined side, which is the side the waxen leaf has to be formed on. The
belt of light green over the silvery markings of the leaf should be
put on with verdigris-green. Begin the leaf in the center and continue
on each side of the midrib till the edge is reached and the leaf has a
thick coating of wax. Then lay a wire along the midrib or center of
the leaf, fasten it in the wax by pressing, care being taken to leave
it long enough for eight or nine inches of stem. Wire must also be
laid on all the side ribs or veins leading to the midrib. These small
wires are all brought to the center wire and laid evenly by its side
till they all come to the stem, where they are all twisted around it
to form one long, thick stem. Give the leaf another coating of dark
olive-green wax (this covers the wires), then finish with a thin
coating of burnt umber tinted with Vandyke brown, and the under
surface of the leaf is finished. Remove the natural leaf from the
waxen and tint the veins lightly with carmine. Brush a little carmine
loosely on the darkest shade in the center of the leaf, and before it
sticks blow off as much as possible, when enough will be left to give
it that reddish-green tint peculiar to the begonia rex leaf. The next
is to finish the silver belt or silvery leaf-markings midway between
the center and the edge of the leaf. This strip must be rubbed with
spirits of turpentine; then with the tinting brush apply a coating of
silver bronze (Nos. 4000 and 6000), care being taken that the bronze
does not scatter over the leaf. Now the leaf is finished.

If the work is done according to directions, the waxen leaf will be a
true copy of the original. Continue in the same way till all the
leaves are made, then wax the stems and run them through the begonia
stemming, when they may be arranged in their natural growing manner in
a flowerpot filled