Although we speak of flower arrangement, the art is not confined to flowers, but extends also to the treatment of trees and shrubs without flowers. Among the trees, the branches of which are, when in flower, put into vases, are the plum, camellia, cherry, peach, rose, azalea, Japan quince, and wistaria, while the herbaceous flowers are innumerable and include such different plants as the pot marigold, corchorus, peony, bleeding-heart, iris, anemone, primrose, red-bud, sweet flag, hydrangea, clematis, safflower, corn-poppy, common mallow, day lily, cockscomb, globe amaranth, chrysanthemum, narcissus, lady’s slipper, and Cape jasmine. Branches of trees noted for their foliage are also put into vases, such as the magnolia, yulan, pine, and similar evergreens; and others bearing fruit are in no less favour, like the loquat, plum, nandina, and pomegranate. In short, the art is practised with most trees and shrubs, cultivated or wild. The principle of the arrangement in its simplest form, which deals with three stalks or branches, is that the middle stalk or branch, which is the longest, shall rise perpendicularly, or nearly so, and of the remaining two one shall branch off horizontally to one side and the other slant upward on the other side of the central stalk or branch. More stalks or branches may be taken, but their positions are only amplifications of the two lateral ones. The central piece being always single and amplifications being of equal number on both sides, there is invariably an odd number of stalks or branches. The manner of amplification or the position of the secondary stalks varies with the different schools of flower arrangement. The only condition they all insist upon is that the stalks or branches shall be in a way balanced on either side, but shall not show perfect symmetry which is never to be found in nature. As stalks which completely satisfy the conditions required for their artistic arrangement cannot be readily procured, it becomes necessary to bend and twist them into the requisite shape. They must be so bent and twisted as not to snap, crush the fibres, or display splits, but to conceal the artificial alteration of their structure. While the arrangement of the stalks and flowers calls for taste and judgment, their manipulation demands no less dexterity in carrying out the design formed; and it needs considerable practice to be able to bend the soft stalk of the orchid and the tough branch of the plum with equal ease and neatness.