with moss; or, if preferred, the flowerpot may be
filled with wax, in _terre-verte_ green, and the stems must be placed
in it before the wax gets hard.

HOW TO MAKE BEGONIA STEMMING.

Procure the bristles of a very young pig, five or six weeks old. After
washing, put them in a very strong solution of chloride of lime and
let them remain in it till whitened; then rinse well in warm water
till free from chlorine. Color them while damp, some in different
shades of green and some in different shades of brown. After the
bristles are ready, the next thing is to make the stemming. Take a
square piece of cambric and fasten it in a stretcher, then give it a
thick coating of mastic varnish, and when the varnish is dry cut the
cambric on a true bias into straight strips of different widths, from
an inch to two inches, and half a yard in length. Lay one of these
strips on a table or some smooth surface, add another coat of varnish,
then cover it with glaucous green flock, care being taken to leave a
narrow margin bare on one side to lap under the other when the piping
is being made. Dip the bristles in mastic varnish, sprinkle them
thickly over the flock, and leave for twenty-four hours to dry; when
thoroughly dry, revarnish the bare edge, and turn it in underneath the
other edge, thus forming the strip into a pipe, ready to receive the
wire stems of the leaves. Brown and crimson flock may be used.

For begonia rex, use crimson flock; for the rubra, use glaucous flock;
and for the palmata, use brown flock. Very good stemming may be made
by tinting canton flannel, which has a very long nap or pile.

GERANIUM LEAVES--ROSE GERANIUM.

This leaf is of a dark chrome green. Prepare the wax in two shades,
dark chrome green and light; immerse the leaves in soapsuds for six
hours; take out of the soapsuds and lay it on the marble slab. As
there is neither shading nor marking on the leaf, all that is required
is to give it a coat of dark chrome green, thick enough to prevent the
wires from showing; then lay the wires over the veins and coat them
over with a light shade of green. Remove the natural leaf, and as the
texture of the rose geranium leaf is rather rough, rub it over with
green flock mixed with hair powder. The stems may be left in different
lengths.

The best directions that we can give for the tinting and marking of
leaves is to copy from nature. The cyclamen leaf is well adapted f