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THE FLOWER GARDEN.

SPRING is once more upon us, and with it, also, the desire to adorn our homes with nature's floral beauties. Many heretofore have been deprived of rare and beautiful plants by the expense, as well as difficulty of obtaining them. To those living at a distance from the great centres of horticulture, and who desire but a few plants, and who have the skill and patience to nurse them after received, the recent Act of Congress, allowing seeds and plants to be mailed in packages not exceeding eight ounces in weight, opens the way for procuring many choice plants at little expense. As our efforts have always been directed to popularize flowers, and bring them within the reach of all, we have prepared a select list of a few of such kinds as may be safely carried by mail, and have grown them expressly in small pots for this purpose. We will mail any single specimen for twenty-five cents, or twelve for two dollars. The following comprise the varieties:

GAZANIA SPLENDENS, a new bedding plant of great beauty of foliage, and large showy flowers of golden orange color with dark centre, constant bloomer.

JOCHROMA WARSCEWICZIE, an everblooming plant, with pendent, blue trumpet-shaped flowers.

AURICULA-FLOWERED SWEET WILLIAM, a new and beautiful variety.

DWARP HELIOTROPES, Beauty of the Boudoir, bluish lilac; Petit nigresse, dark purple.

FEATHERED, OR SCOTCH PINKS, two choice varieties. Anna Boleyn, Gertrude.

NEW VERBENAS, Prince of Wales, blush striped with crimson; Major Boardman, rich pink; Mrs. Moore, dark violet; Welcome, lemon yellow.

LANTANAS, crocea superba, orange; Gigantea, purple and yellow.

FUCHSIAS, single Wiltshire lass; Souvenir de Chiswick; double corollas. Sir Colin Campbell; Washington. Twenty-five varieties by mail for one dollar. H. A. DREER, Seedsman and Florist,

FLOWER SEEDS.

327 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA AGENCY.

No order attended to unless the cash accompanies it. All persons requiring answers by mail must send a post-office stamp; and for all articles that are to be sent by mail, stamps must be sent to pay return postage.

Be particular, when writing, to mention the town, county, and State you reside in. Nothing can be made out of post-marks.

H. W. L.-Sent hair cross, January 2ith.
E. R. C.-Sent photograph by mail 24th.
Miss E. D.-Sent pattern of Garibaldi suit for girl 24th.
Mrs. V. R.-Sent marine jacket pattern 25th.

J. W. P.-Sent cloak pattern 25th.

J. M. C.-Sent hair cross and earrings 27th.
L. H.-Sent cartes de visite of the Generals 27th.
M. S. R.-Sent Merinal flannel for Garibaldi shirt 28th.
Mrs. O. B. K.-Sent furs by Kinsley's Express 28th.
Mrs. T. K.-Sent patterns infant's wardrobe 29th,
Mrs. J. McG.-Sent infant's cloak and blanket 29th.
Mrs. L. R. A.-Sent crochet sacque for child 29th.
Mrs. S. T.-Sent sleeping cushion 29th.

Miss A. A. W.-Sent pattern of Garibaldi shirt 30th.
Miss S. C. H.-Sent mantilla pattern 30th.

L. E. C.-Sent writing-paper and envelopes 31st.
C. L. F.-Sent robe by Adams's Express, Feb. 3d.
Mrs. M. A. W.-Sent photographs of the Generals 3d.

D. T. H.-Sent braided jacket pattern 5th.
Miss J. S. R.-Sent Godenski cap 5th.

Mrs. J. N. J.-Sent pattern and materials for paper flowers 5th.

Miss M. J.-Sent net for hair 6th.
Mrs. H. F. W.-Sent zephyr 6th.

K. H.-Sent photographs of the Generals 6th.
Mrs. M. N. A.-Sent pattern marine jacket 7th.
Mrs. M. H. S.-Sent patterns infant's slip and dress
7th.

Mrs. E. C. B.-Sent pattern lancer's jacket 7th.
Mrs. E. B.-Sent hair ring 8th.

Miss T. B. G.-Sent Cleopatra jacket 8th.
Miss E. A.-Sent photographs Sth.
Mrs. F. F.-Sent Garibaldi shirt 10th.
Miss M. E. T.-Sent hair breastpin 10th.
Mrs. O. F. T.-Sent pattern walking-dress 11th.
Mrs. T. McC.-Sent cap and stockings by Adams's Ex-
press 11th.

Miss G. J.-Sent pattern for cloak 11th. Mrs. L. A. R.-Sent evening hood 12th. Miss B. E.-Shell pattern for a quilt. We published this about two years ago. Presume you have not been long a subscriber.

J. G.-Many persons write us who cannot be subscribers. For instance, you ask for charades. Do we not occasionally give them? And then you say the letters from Ella Moore to Susy, in 1860, were very useful; and yet you say nothing of Ella Moore's letter in December, 1861.

Veritas, of Crawfordsville, Ind., is informed that four of the portraits mentioned have been published in the Book. Remember that the Lady's Book is thirty-three years old; probably older than Veritas.

C. R. T.-All teeth, we think, may be kept clean by simply using white soap.

L. N. S.-The postage on the Book you will find on page 410 of this number. No postmaster has a right to ask any more.

H. A. DREER'S-SEEDSMAN-ANSWERS TO HIS CORRE

SPONDENTS.

Mrs. W. H.-For a complete list of bedding plants see Dreer's Garden Calendar for 1862. We are sending out one hundred choice plants, packed for ten dollars.

Mrs. Dr. C.-Plants rarely flower well when kept in too active a state of growth. This is probably the cause of your plants not flowering well. Guano and bone dust are not suitable for pot culture. A good compost of fresh loam and leaf mould is all that is necessary. See hints on window gardening in Dreer's Garden Calendar. Mrs. E. L. McL.-The remarks above may also suit your case. Gardeners and florists rarely use artificial manures, where good decomposed barnyard manure is obtainable.

Centre-Table Gossip.

FEMININE PHOTOGRAPHS.

MR. J. G. KOHL, a German traveller of large experience, has undertaken to describe “American Women;" and as every one is interested in their own picture, we lay a few of his photographs on our Centre-Table for discussion among the large representation of "American Ladies" who gather around it monthly. We fear they will not think the "cartes" very flattering.

AS TO GOOD LOOKS.

Clumsy, coarse features, striking deformities, original and characteristic ugliness are found neither among American men nor women. No one could dream there of asserting that le laid c'est le beau. The great majority of women are moderately pretty, very passable, or pleasingly pretty. Still, their charms are concentrated more in their features than in their demeanor, figures, or corporeal shape. A classical bust, rounded arms, and well-developed limbs are the greatest rarity among them. You may gaze on a hundred, and not discover one shapely waist. The effeminate manners of these anything but Spartan republican ladies, their horror of bodily movement and physical exertion produce a neglect and decay of the entire muscular system. Walking in the open air is something quite unusual with them, for in their country, where there are no footpaths or promenades, they move about in carriages, and rarely on horseback. The rest of the long day they spend, after the fashion of ladies in Eastern harems, on softly cushioned sofas or in their favorite rocking-chairs by the fireside. Full beauties, à la Rubens, are never found among them, and equally rare are those graceful, wellrounded, elastic, Junonic forms which may still be seen in Italy and other European countries.

HABITS OF EXPRESSION.

The American ladies have also received into their every-day English language many French expressions which the English employ rarely or give a very different meaning to. Thus, they have a remarkable propensity for the term "elegant." It has grown one of their favorite words, which they incessantly repeat, and whose broad and various application is no little characteristic of them. English ladies generally apply this word, borrowed from the French, to articles of luxury, to products of the lower branches of art, where it is in its place, and means so much as "pleasing in exterior and form." English ladies would never think of expressing their pleasure with things of greater internal value, which must be gauged by a higher standard, by employing the trivial expression "very elegant." Only American ladies do this; they describe as elegant the toilet and amiable behavior of their beaux, equally with the garish furniture of a room all glistening with ormolu and enamel. For the pretty verses an adorer lays at their feet they have, too, no higher praise than that they are "very elegant, very elegant, indeed." They also call the speech of a high-standing political orator "very elegant." A flower in a garden-bed, the fragrant lily, or the regal rose, is only called by them "an elegant flower." Even a picture by Raphael or Corregio receives in the outburst of their enthusiasm no other attribute. If they return from Switzerland, and are asked what they have seen amid the Alps, they praise the "elegant scenery" of the mountains. This unlucky word, and the more unlucky predilection for the elegant which is met with at every step among American ladies is so deeply rooted in them that they have extended the territory of the word to extraordinary lengths, both upwards and downwards. For instance, going downwards, they will talk of an "elegant dish" they have eaten; and, going upwards, what we call a good or classical taste is generally characterized by them as an "elegant taste."

THE POOR HUSBANDS.

In America this terribly degenerated reverence for women, which might be called more truly pampering

and spoiling, is naturally felt most by the husbands, who have entered upon a lifelong slavery. If a lovely American girl sinks into the arms of a man, to be bound to him for life, she does so much in the same way as she throws herself into her easy-chair. Marriage is her pillow, her sofa, on which she intends henceforth comfortably to repose. Upon it she confidently throws all the burden of her cares and troubles; she regards her husband as her factotum, who has to provide for all her wants. He must procure her a house according to her fancy, he must furnish this house exactly as she wishes it, he must arrange and administer kitchen and cellar, and even go every morning before breakfast to make the necessary purchases for the day's meals. Even in Washington you may at times see senators, statesmen renowned in the world and influential in the papers, hurrying to market at an early hour with a basket on their arm, and carrying home salad, pastry, green peas, strawberries, or other vegetable produce.

Even farmers' wives often hold themselves much too high for business of this sort, and scenes of the following nature may be seen at market: A young farmer's wife I once saw sitting in a little one-horse chaise and holding the reins. In her elegant dress she could not, of course, be expected to go into the dust and confusion of the market, so she had sent off her husband. He was busy among the stalls, like a swallow collecting insects for its young, and presently appeared again laden with all sorts of boxes and parcels. These the farmer's wife, naturally, could not take on her silk lap, so the husband had to hold them carefully in the chaise.

SAPPHIRES.

We have heard ladies ready to break friendship in discussions on the true colors of different jewels, or, more properly, "gems;" as, for instance, the sapphire: "It is blue," they assert, "sapphire skies," and all the rest of the triumphant quotations! But it is worthy of notice that we can often "be right, yet wrong," as the following interesting article will prove:

Next to the diamond in hardness, beauty, and value, comes the sapphire-the holy sapphire, "which renders the bearer pacific, amiable, pious, and devout, and confirms the soul in good works," which refuses to shine for the beautifying of the unchaste or the impure, and which, by the mere force of its own pure rays, kills all noxious and venomous creatures. How to describe that soft, deep blue-deepest in the males, fairest in the females-to which nothing living can be compared, save, perhaps, the exquisite glory of an Irish eye? The sapphire in its true color is blue-blue as an Italian heaven, blue as the deep blue sea; but it is also red, and yellow, and green, and violet, and hair-brown-such a brown as the Venetian painters loved, with a golden light striking through-and it is bluish-gray and blackish, and it is sometimes radiated and chatoyant. But when all these various colors, it is called by various names: it is oriental ruby when red; oriental topaz when yellow; oriental emerald when green; oriental amethyst when violet; adamantine spar when hair-brown; emery when in granulated masses of bluish-gray; asteria, or star-stone, when radiated; corundum when dull and dingy-colored. Thus, all the finest gems are mere varieties of the sapphire, which stands next in order to the kingly diamond himself. The sapphire sometimes changes color by artificial light, and Mr. Hope's "saphir merveilleux," which is a deep, delicious blue by day, becomes distinctly amethystine at night. The finest

blue sapphires come from Ceylon, which is a very island of gems; and one of the most magnificent in the civilized world is that in the insignia of the Saint Esprit, among the crown-jewels in France. The dove is formed of a single sapphire of great size and marvellous beauty, mounted on white diamonds, and surrounded by the finest suite of blue diamonds in existence. The blue diamonds are almost as intense in color as the sapphire itself. The asteria, or star-stone sapphire, is a singularly lovely gem grayish-blue in color, but turn it which way you will, you see ever six rays of brilliant silver light stream from it. Sometimes the stone is red, when the star-rays are golden yellow; and sometimes they are purely white on a ground of red or blue. The girasol sapphire has a most beautiful play of opalescent light, pinkish, aurora-colored, or bluish. The sapphire is pure alumina, colored by one of the magic agents by which Nature transforms her children and masquerades her servants.-English Magazine.

CLIPPINGS AT OUR CENTRE-TABLE.

KEW GARDEN.

THIS fine botanical establishment in England is under the sole charge of Sir Wm. Harker, and is one of the finest in the world. Our well-known horticulturist, Parsons, of Flushing, gives us a glimpse of its arrange

ments.

"In the midst of the grounds is built the large Palm House, which we thought more harmonious in its architectural proportions than any glass structure we had seen, and far superior to the celebrated conservatory at Chatsworth. This is full of beautiful and curious plants of great size, among which the palms and tree ferns are the most conspicuous. The gigantic Abyssinian banana has grown in five years more than thirty-five feet, with a stem seven and a half feet in circumference, and leaves sixteen feet long. Among the rare things are the zamias, the singular pitcher plants the cycads and their allies, the rice paper plant of Formosa, the ouvirandra fenestralis or singular lattice leaf, from Madagascar, the lace bark of Jamaica, the cinchona or Peruvian bark, the superb Sikkem rhododendrons, and many rare tropical trees, upon which the visitor looks down from a spiral staircase, or from the gallery to which it leads in the top of the conservatory.

"Beside this large house is one devoted to the Victoria lily, while orchids and other plants occupy more than twenty smaller houses. For these various houses there are six foremen, besides numerous laborers. One foreman has charge of the flower-beds, about 400 in number, for which each year a supply of 40,000 bedding plants is required. A new conservatory is about to be erected of great size, which will accommodate the palms, now getting too large for their present habitation. important feature connected with the garden is the gardener's library and reading room, the importance of which will be readily perceived, and doubtless imitated in the New York Park.

A very

"It consists of two small apartments adjoining the Director's office, and contains a selection of works useful to a gardener, with horticultural journals, maps, and stationery for readers. It is open every evening for the gardeners, under the direction of the curator and foremen, who are responsible by turns for the safety of the books and good conduct of the men.

"The foremen also act as librarians. The gardeners thus educate themselves, and, in accepting private situations, are able to carry with them good testimonials."

FAMILY INTERCOURSE AT THE TABLE.

To meet at the breakfast-table, father, mother, children, all well, ought to be a happiness to any heart; it should be a source of humble gratitude, and should wake up the warmest feelings of our nature. Shame upon the contemptible and low-bred cur, whether parent or child, that can ever come to the breakfast-table, where all the family have met in health, only to frown, and whine, and growl, and fret! It is prima facie evidence of a mean, and grovelling, and selfish, and degraded nature, whencesover the churl may have sprung. Nor is it less reprehensible to make such exhibitions at the tea-table; for, before the morning comes, some of the little circle may be stricken with some deadly disease, to gather around that table not again forever! Children in good health, if left to themselves at the table, become, after a few mouthfuls, garrulous and noisy; but if within at all reasonable or bearable bounds, it is better to let them alone; they eat less, because they do not eat so rapidly as if compelled to keep silent, while the very exhilaration of spirits quickens the circulation of the vital fluids, and energizes digestion and assimilation. The extremes of society curiously meet in this regard. The tables of the rich and the nobles of England are models of mirth, wit, and bonhommie; it takes hours to get through a repast, and they live long. If anybody will look in upon the negroes of a well-to-do family in Kentucky, while at their meals, they cannot but be impressed with the perfect abandon of jabber, cachinnation, and mirth; it seems as if they could talk all day, and they live long. It follows, then, that at the family-table all should meet, and do it habitually, to make a common interchange of high-bred courtesies, of warm affections, of cheering mirthfulness, and that generosity of nature, which lifts us above the brutes which perish, promotive as these things are of good digestion, high health, and a long life.-Hall's Journal of Health.

Fashions.

NOTICE TO LADY SUBSCRIBERS.

HAVING had frequent applications for the purchase of jewelry, millinery, etc., by ladies living at a distance, the Editress of the Fashion Department will hereafter execute commissions for any who may desire it, with the charge of a small percentage for the time and research required. Spring and autumn bonnets, materials for dresses, jewelry, envelops, hair-work, worsteds, children's wardrobes, mantillas, and mantelets, will be chosen with a view to economy, as well as taste; and boxes or packages forwarded by express to any part of the country. For the last, distinct directions must be given.

Orders, accompanied by checks for the proposed expenditure, to be addressed to the care of L. A. Godey, Esq.

No order will be attended to unless the money is first received. Neither the Editor nor Publisher will be accountable for losses that may occur in remitting.

The Publisher of the Lady's Book has no interest in this department, and knows nothing of the transactions; and whether the person sending the order is or is not a subscriber to the Lady's Book, the Fashion editor does not know.

Instructions to be as minute as is possible, accompanied by a note of the height, complexion, and general style of the person, on which much depends in choice. Dress goods from Evans & Co.'s; mourning goods from Besson

& Son; cloaks, mantillas, or talmas, from Brodie's, 51 Canal Street, New York; bonnets from the most celebrated establishments; jewelry from Wriggens & Warden, or Caldwell's, Philadelphia.

When goods are ordered, the fashions that prevail here govern the purchase; therefore, no articles will be taken back. When the goods are sent, the transaction must be considered final.

DESCRIPTION OF STEEL FASHION-PLATE FOR APRIL.

Fig. 1.-Dress of black silk, with two narrow flounces on the bottom of the skirt, the upper one having a narrow blue ruche. Above this is placed a fold of blue silk slightly puffed, or perfectly plain, as may suit the fancy, braided on each side with a narrow ruche of black ribbon, and crossed diagonally by the same. The sleeves are slashed to correspond with this trimming, and diamond-shaped ornaments of the same style cover the front of the corsage. The headdress is a coronet ruche, of blue silk and black lace.

Fig. 2.-Raspberry-colored silk, à la Gabrielle. There is a narrow flounce around the bottom; the rest of the trimming is a plaiting of wine-colored ribbon. The sleeves are particularly simple and elegant. Bonnet of white crape and spotted thulle, with a frill of blonde on the edge of the brim, and a bird of Paradise plume.

Fig. 3.-Dress of rich brown silk, with plissés of the same shade of ribbon, which has a pearled or pointed edge. The sleeve is noticeable in this figure also, as a new modification of the favorite Francis 1st, and is extremely stylish; it is lined with white silk and has a plaiting of white satin ribbon. Simple white chip hat, with mauve ribbons, and a row of daisies inside the brim. Fig. 4. An elaborate reception-dress of Pomona or apple-green silk; the bands are of black silk, the lower one ornamented by a design in green braid work. Zouave jacket of black cloth, with green silk edging and insertings; the diamond-shaped ornament is in green braid. Cawl of white and black guipure, with a few flowers in the plaited lace border.

Fig. 5.-Walking or carriage-dress of mauve silk, with plain pointed waist, and sleeves of moderate width; the skirt has a diagonal puffing of alternate mauve and violet silk, separated by a mauve pipeing. Tablier mantle, trimmed with volantes of silk, and rich crochet fringe, with a pyramidal heading of crochet. Hat of white silk, with mauve ribbon and black and white lace. Mauve flowers with large green leaves, and black and white lace inside the brim.

JUVENILE FIGURES.

Fig. 1.-Child's dress of lobelia blue silk, with an apron front, and daisy ornaments. The sleeves are excellent, being left open at the top to display the full white sleeve of the chemisette. Gray Leghorn hat, with white plume.

Fig. 2.-Full trowsers and gaiters of ribbed drop d'ête; Garibaldi shirt and sash of scarlet cachmerine, with a small braid pattern in black. Sailor's hat of Leghorn, with velvet braiding and band.

SPRING COSTUMES.

(See engraving, page 327.)

Fig. 1.-A lobelia blue spring silk, with a small black dash in it, made low neck. The skirt, body, and sleeves are trimmed with box-plaited ruffles edged with a very narrow black velvet. Brown Tuscan hat, with brown plume.

Fig. 2.-Suit of gray Marseilles.

Fig. 3.-Mauve and white summer poplin dress, trimmed with bands of mauve silk. Leghorn hat, trimmed with field flowers.

Fig. 4.-Zouave jacket and skirt of white Marseilles, corded with scarlet braid.

CHITCHAT UPON NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA FASHIONS FOR APRIL.

NOTWITHSTANDING the little demand for novelties that was anticipated at the time of the spring orders, we find many pretty things at Stewart's and elsewhere. By the kindness of Mr. Letson, of that establishment, we have been shown several new inexpensive materials, and a large selection of the new spring silks. Among the new materials, the most popular for early spring wear will be the Taffeta d'Annecy, a cotton and wool material, and in some instances, with a bar or stripe of silk crossing it. It is in stripes, checks, of the softest and most delicate spring colors, which we will give, as they pervade every material, as well as silks, ribbons, and gloves.

Rose d'Alpes, hois (wood colors), gros vert (a rich green), chamois (pale buff), azurline, vert imperial, and every possible tint and shade of mode as the ground. Taffeta de Suez is of cotton and wool, a thinner material, as is the Grenadine barèges, called also wool grenadine. These last are of a texture like an exceedingly fine barège Anglais, with mode, or mode and black grounds, and rich figures, brocheé (embroidered), in the colors we have mentioned. Epinglorie brocheé is a not very dissimilar material.

In silks it is thought that plain colors will be revived, and changeable grounds, with delicate chineé figures, will be much worn; also black, figured silks, the figure a small lozenge, dot, stripe, and even wreath. Very small plaids, a white ground, quadrilled with black, green, Magenta, bois, etc. etc., are in decided favor. The black to be trimmed with ribbon or ruches in bright colors, mixed with black, and are very effective. The most striking novelties are a chineé silk, alma ground (a bluish-gray), and camaieux figure, two simple leaves of bois, a wood color, in different shades, the one like a shadow of the other. Also a rich drab silk, quadrilled by a wreath of convolvulus blossoms and leaves, and the Varsovienne, a changeable ground, green and white, with a raised, satin-like, geometrical figure crossing it in vert imperial. The styles for making up are various. We instance a dress of azurline blue silk, which is a brighter shade than the lobelia worn the past winter; the corsage is the pointed boddice worn fifteen years ago; the sleeves are flowing, moderately wide at the wrist, about the width of a Mousquetaire, with a few plaits at top, and no cuff at the bottom. A row of oval, black velvet pateés reach from the brooch to the point of the boddice, set on closely. These pates are plain, with an edge of good, narrow, black lace, in pointed pattern; a row of them is set a little above the edge of the sleeve, in a straight line. The skirt is plain, set on the waist in plaits, not flat, of a moderate width, plain directly under the point, where a row of paters, increasing in size, rounds away in a tunic line, and is carried around the whole dress, almost ten inches from the hem, at intervals of five inches.

A handsome black silk is made in the same form; a narrow ruche of silk forms a double chain pattern, from the shoulder to the point, on each side the corsage, where it is joined in an elongated, oval loop; the sleeves have the same trimming repeated a little above the edge, and

a single row across the top, where the bottom of a cap would fall. A row of the same forms a trimming around the skirt at the height of twelve inches.

Among the changeable or shot, spring silks, we have seen one of Havané and gray, the trimming ruches of the same silk, in a flat plait and space. This trimming, which is on the skirt, the open sleeves, and the girdle, is also placed around the neck, and a narrow ruffle of lace or muslin rises above it.

A dress of bluish-gray and white, has a narrow stripe of black, three-quarters of an inch wide, running through it. It is made up in a most stylish manner. The corsage pointed and turned back quite widely at the throat, with a pretty rolling collar, en gilet; from the collar to the hem it is closed by five good-sized, plain, black velvet buttons. The stripes are straighter on the corsage and sleeve, diagonal on the Mousquetaire cuff, which, with the collar, is bordered by an inch wide, black, velvet ribbon. The cuff has three small, oval pateés of velvet and lace. The front of the skirt is apron-fashion, the apron sloping away to a point on each side, having the appearance of a broad gore, less than a breadth wide at top, and plaited into a point; the bottom two breadths wide. In the rest of the skirt the stripes are made to fall diagonally; in the tablier they are straight, which gives it a very stylish appearance. The back of the skirt laps to the width of an inch; wide velvet over the tablier; three pates, at the distance of twelve inches apart, are placed back of this on each side. In the neck a narrow row of lace, and a plaited muslin chemisette across the bottom of the vest-like opening.

We have room but for two more descriptions. A dress of plain gray silk; four inches from the bottom of the skirt is a band of black velvet four inches wide, headed by seven rows of narrow gray velvet, two shades darker than the dress. This may be again repeated, but is heavy, if so, for spring. The corsage is plain, with a Medicis girdle of black velvet, forming a point up and down. The sleeves are bell-shaped, brought into a loose band at the wrist, which is trimmed by rows of narrow black and gray velvet; they are entirely open from the shoulder to the band on the forearm, the opening being trimmed on each side with black and gray velvet. The same is carried round the throat, where a frill of gauffered lace stands upright. A full undersleeve, of course, must be worn with this open sleeve. It is a single puff of lace, drawn in close at the wrist to a ruche of lace, which extends the whole length of the sleeve on the forearm, showing prettily in the opening of the dress sleeve.

Pale green, or "water green," as it is sometimes called, is, as we have said, a favorite shade for spring wear. A dress of this has each seam of the skirt trimmed with a plaiting of silk, through the middle of which is passed a narrow black velvet. The same extends from the waist to the throat on the corsage, rather wider at the throat than at the waist; or the plaiting may be of black silk and the centre of green. On the sleeve it describes a series of "horseshoe crescents," a popular style of applying ruches, plaitings, etc.

A dress of black and white check, very small, may be handsomely trimmed by gauffered bands of Magenta, rose de roi, blue, or vert silk, with the velvet in the centre. We have seen one from the Fourteenth Street establishment of Madame Demorest with bands of gros vert and black velvet-very stylish, indeed.

As to spring bonnets, the all-important part of ladies' toilets, they will be worn of straw, except for full dress, and the straws will be generally fine and close, or else

very fine gimp; nothing showy will be found among the new styles.

From the Misses McConnel, of Clinton Place, New York, we give the following information: Bonnets will be very much the same shape as those worn during the winter; they may possibly be a little deeper from the crown to the front, and rather more square on top, though they will not droop at all over the face. All the best bonnets will have illusion tabs, though not quite so full as those worn during the winter. The caps will be rather long, and generally droop in the centre. The inside trimming is placed on top in the diadem style.

Among the many beautiful bonnets at this establishment we notice the following: A bonnet of chip, covered with cords of fine straw; cape of black silk and black lace, on the left side of the bonnet; very near the face was a cluster of rich scarlet pomegranates and brown, hanging berries, and on the flowers rested a beautiful butterfly, with black lace wings; inside was a drawn facing, one row of black and one row of white silk, then lace tabs, and over the forehead black lace, plaited and scarlet pomegranates.

Another was of white illusion, with a scarlet or Garibaldi-colored velvet cape, and trimmed on one side with scarlet velvet, plaited like an opened fan, the small end being toward the front of the bonnet; a band of black silk, two inches wide, was folded carelessly round the whole fan, and black feathers and coques of black lace were on the top and edge of the bonnet, which was also finished by a black lace being fastened inside the bonnet, then turned over, plaited down to form a binding to the bonnet, leaving a little frill all round on the outside, which had a charming effect. The inside was composed of black lace, scarlet velvet, acorns, oak-leaves, and white blonde tabs.

Another was of Dunstable straw, faced with a sea. green velvet, and having two bands of the velvet on the outside, one standing up on the edge of the bonnet, and the other about an inch further back. This bonnet was trimmed with a black veil of spotted lace, about ten inches wide and three-quarters of a yard long; it formed part of the inside trimming, then turned over on the outside of the bonnet, and was caught by an exquisite branch of roses and buds on the left side near the edge of the bonnet; it was then folded over once, and carried straight down to the crown, where was placed a black butterfly; the veil covered part of the crown, and fell over and below the cape, to which it was attached by a rose and bud. The cape was of white silk and black lace, and the inside trimming was composed of the veil, roses, and illusion tabs.

Another straw we admired for its simplicity and novelty; it had on the left side a bow composed of flat loops of white ribbon, two inches in width, on which was placed a bouquet of violets, berries, and a large white narcissus. The cape was of white silk, but in the centre were three rows of black lace, placed one above the other, the lowest one falling about two inches below the cape; and on the side of the cape was another bow of the white ribbon, the same style but rather smaller than the one on the bonnet. The inside was composed of loops of white ribbon and violets, on the left side was a blonde tab, and on the other was black lace drawn and passed from the inside of the bonnet to the outside, and so on, so that it formed the entire inside trimming for one side of the bonnet, and a very pretty outside trimming, also.

Of dress bonnets we will speak next month.

FASHION.

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