FLOWERS IN CHURCHES.
The Principal of Somerville has been raising a protest against the abuse of floral decoration in Churches at Easter. Flaccid and fading flowers tied up in pitiful bunches to waterless brackets are certainly not a fit symbol of " resurgent Easter- tide." In one remote village the church was decorated yearly with wild daffodils, always supplied by an old woman. She had no garden to speak of and no wild daffodils grew within the parish ; and it was long before the source of her gift of flowers was traced. She journeyed to an open grove —the one place where daffodils grew (it had probably once been a garden) picked every flower in bud and slowly brought them to blossom in a bath in her bedroom. She was sui;e she was doing pious work. What we want above all—in respect of flowers and birdsis a form of education which shall persuade the people that a bird or flower in the bush is worth two in the hand. The Japanese habit of the artistio worship of flowers out of doors is the finer ideal.
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