Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-03
The American Beauty Leads Her
Sisters in the Rose World.
WITH ORCHIDS And VIOLETS NEAR BY
Ribbons and Fxings for the Brides
Bouquet.
BOUTONNIERES
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star
The fashionable flowers the coming winter
will be roses, orchids and violets, and when
that is said, a statement of the same general
value is made as If you had remarked that the
summit of a womans happiness in the way
of personal belongings would still be repre-
scented by diamonds, real lace and royal
sables. There are no more desirable arti-
cles for feminine adornment in the world
than fine jewels and furs. and possibly never
have been. The fashions in their setting
and use may change, but the intrinsic
beauty of the original article does not. In
most cases the oldest specimens Of lace are
the most beautiful, and the perfect gem
that has an historical association has its
value increased many times, while as mag
nificent specimens of furs as have ever
been worn are still sought and still found
by the trapper and hunter.
None of these sayings are entirely true
| where that most beautiful and fleeing or all
growing things on earth-a hower-is con-
cerned. The ultimate perfection Of any
flower in the new loneliness 1t may show
generations to come is subject hard for
any but the most imaginative mind. The
development of the chrysanthemum, the
season of which so closely approaches, is a
case in point. Its boom a few years back
was in keeping with the astonishment which
followed its new appearance in its gorgeous
ness of form and color and for strictly dec
orative purposes it is and must remain the
autumn blossom par excellence until new
discovery or development pushes 1t aside.
Orchids belong also to the extraordinary
species in the fiowery kingdom. Their Gull
ture a fashionable adjunct does not go
back many years. Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain
has probably done much as any other
living individual to assure their popularity.
He made their growing fad for years, and
was never seen without beautiful specl-
men of the Dendrobium the white variety,
in his buttonhoe. Roses and vioets, how
ever need no fashionable patronage to add
to the spell they cast. The littlest rose and
the tiniest violet have destinations of their
cwn-fragrance and. comeliness that are only
empha sized and enlarged in their grown-up
sisters.
The Glorious Beauty.
But the American beauty of today
differs as greatly in artistic value from the
ordinary rose as the old-time tOothpick
bouquet and the graceful cluster of bios
SONS which the fashionable belle Of the
period may either carry or wear. This
queen of roses represents a perfection of
all the qualities which have ever been most
admired in the flower 1t has color, shape,
vigor and the profusion of foliage which
gives to each bud it's appropriate setting.
Very few of the greatest lovers of the
beauty know that the capital Of the nation
was it's birthplace The parent plant was a
Nine. German rose growing in Historian
Bancroft's garden on H street. The plant
was sent to him along with number of
other fine specimens from a European
grower. Mr. Bancroft had it planted among
the rest in his famous garden. A grower
saw possibilities in it, and from it a plant
was grown that was a marvel. A Wash
ington florist saw the latter one day and at
once realized what the discovery meant. He
offered to buy every bud produced, and did
so for long time 1t was at the beginning
of the Cleveland administration, when Mrs.
Whitney was charming the Washington
world by the elegance and frequency of her
Inequalities. Mrs. Whitney succumbed to
the spell of the American beauty rose and
for the four years of her residence here
thousands of them lived out their all too
brief life of loneliness in her house. With
her patronage the fashionable career of the
flower began. 1t has never Waned ever so
little, and its future at this time seems Just
about certain anything mundane No
flower approaches it in fragrance or effect.
1t is beautiful in bouquet, though a single
specimen, or at best two or three, are all
the average woman cares to carry. 1t is
as glorious in daylight as in an artificial
light, and as an ornament in a room it
simply lifts any apartment out of the COM
monplace. The beauty requires the length
of the stem and all the foliage to show the
blossom off to its fullest sDlendor No
house decoration can be considered eIabo-
rate nowadays unless the Beauty forms the
leading flower.
The Westinghouse Flower.
The usefulness of the orchid is apparent
where color scheme is carried out. There
fore, it is highly fashionable as a relief to
the dead whiteness of the bride rose or the
valley lily in brides bouquet. This is
true of either of the two popular varieties
the dendrobium, which has exquisite tones
of green and yellow speckles with the
white, and the cattlya, perhaps the most
admired, which has the pinkish lavender
shading. The name of Mrs. Westinghouse
is perhaps better identified so far as this
city is concerned with the orchid tnan any
other Of our wealthy hostesses. Mrs. West
inghouse loves all flowers, but is especially
devoted to the orchid. Whenever she en-
tertains on large scale here some strik-
ing effects are always made in which
cattlyas appear as the central attraction
dinner given by her last winter exceeded
in magnificence anything ever seen here, or
perhaps anywhere else The table, which
was laid with real lace over mauve velvet,