The single laths are nailed up to the joists of the ceiling, or to the _quartering_ of partitions, with but a small interval between each, so as entirely to cover the surface. The workmen then proceed to cover the lathing with coarse plaster, a labourer supplying them with a small quantity at a time on a square board, held in the plasterer’s left hand by means of a short thick handle stuck upright into the back of the board. The man uses a rectangular flat wooden trowel, with a bridge-shaped handle, to transfer the _stuff_ from the board to the wall, and to spread it evenly over the surface. When the room of which the walls are being plastered is of a better description, the work is _floated_, that is, a regular surface is obtained by drawing a long straight-edge over the wet plaster, so as to scrape off the inequalities and reduce the whole to a plane surface. A thinner coating of finer plaster is spread over the first to finish the plastering, and this is again floated in drawing-rooms, and so on. Plaster and Papier-Maché Ornaments for Rooms. The mouldings of cornices in rooms are formed by a wooden mould drawn along a straight-edge to guide the mould, acting like the carpenter’s plane, when forming analogous mouldings in wood. When such cornices are of sufficient size and depth to require it, wooden brackets, shaped something like the profile of the cornice, are fixed up against the wall, and laths are nailed on these brackets, to serve as a foundation for the mouldings. By this means the necessity for a heavy mass of plaster, to get the requisite projection in the cornice is avoided; which mass would be unwieldly to manage, and liable to fall down by its weight.