HANGING BASKETS OF MOSS AND SHELLS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2101, 17 November 1880, Page 4

HANGING BASKETS OF MOSS AND SHELLS.

The materials which may he used for the construction of hanging baskets are almost . countless, and with taste and skill many ordinary and homely articles may be converted . into pretty floral ornaments. Two very effeo- - tive baskets have been made as follows. The materials for the first are sea shells, corals, seaweeds, and mosses, or any floral treasures, some asphalte cement, and a common red dflowor-pot. Make the pot quite warm by placing it in an oven, and at once apply the melted asphalte with a brush, giving two -ooata if necessary. Then round the upper rim cement a border of white scallop shells, and two double reversed rows of smaller shells round the centre of the pot. On the -bottom fasten clusters of coral branches in orach a way that the long narrow parts unite ■Six the centre below the bottom of the pot. etween these cement duelers of seaweeds. If you can collect purple, crimson, and ether weeds, use them in to the lush (carrageen) and Iceland mots, which can be bought from the druggist. Dip-the ends in the hot cement, and fasten the clusters closely over the whole bare surface of the pot. When entirely dry touch the extreme ends with dammar varnish, and dost a very little flee frosting upon the .surface, occasionally applying touches of green, blue, violet, and crimson distemper colors, which will relieve the dullness of the black and white. Branches of coral are next fastened round the very edge of the pot, and on each side projecting pieces, to which the suspension cords may appear to be attached, -though for safety they might better be passed through boles drilled in the pot The companion to this basket hae for the foundation a pot of the came kind, but ornajnentsd with » different class of materials,

consisting of lichens, hardened fungi, burrs, cones, bark, &3. In order to impart the necessary brightening up to the rich browns and wood colours, holes are out in the sides and bottom of the pots, and lycopodium or Saxifraga earmentosa and Feitonias introduced, which soon root, and, mingling with the tugged covering, form a good effect. Round the rim of the pot fatten a border of the ehell-like fungi, taking single sections and arranging them uniformly ; fill the interstices between these with lichens, in various shades of blue and pale greeu. Around the centre make the double row of the smaller fungi, and fill the spa es with purple moss or with rook moss, and touch the tipe with scarlet sealing wax dissolved in hot alcohoL Between these light rows fasten burrs, cones, &c., neatly arranged between the holes filled with lycopodium. On the bottom cement light guarled roots or branches, arranged in tho same manner as the coral branches on the marine basket, and the same st the top. The various tints of greens, browns and wood tints form a pretty combination. For stocking these baskets nothing is so effective as a fine group of ferns, and tho creeping fern, Lygodium palmatum, and the Japanese climbing fern, Lygodium scandens, to climb up the supports, then reach over and festoon the extended branches.