The description above given refers to the formal process as practised by one of the schools of the ceremony, which can be followed only in a family which can afford to build a separate tea-room for the purpose. But the ceremony need not always be so exacting. The general principles, such as the making, offering, and drinking of powdered tea and the courtesies accompanying it, are now taught in most girls’ schools, because the knowledge of the ceremony certainly adds to their grace and imparts to them that quiet, stately bearing which characterises the Japanese lady of culture. Indeed, this calm, sedate gracefulness is the result of the study of the tea-ceremony and is assuredly a more valuable acquisition than the knowledge of the formalities themselves. Flower arrangement is an art which plays an important part in the decoration of a room; for the _kakemono_ which hangs in the alcove of the parlour loses half its attraction unless there is before it on the dais a vase of flowers to match. The alcove is the part of the room which draws first notice upon entrance, and the flowers share with the _kakemono_ the earliest attention of the newcomer. The idea underlying the art is that flowers should not be thrown anyhow in a bundle into a vase, but that due consecration should be given to their artistic arrangement. The flowers should even in a vase be arranged as they might appear in nature. It is not always, it is true, as they actually appear in the open air: but they are arranged as they might look if aided by art under certain conditions, for the flowers in the vase always have a degree of symmetry which is but rarely found in nature. Their form is often artificial, but not opposed to nature, just as dwarfed trees are stunted by art but have perfectly natural shapes. The rules regarding the position of the branches in a vase are certainly conventional, insisting as they do upon balance and symmetry of form, but they do not go beyond the bounds of possibility. The only objection, in fact, that might be brought against them is that there is always present the danger of taking for normal forms what are seen in nature perhaps but once in a million. But of the gracefulness of the arrangement there can be no two opinions. [Illustration: FLOWER-VASES.]