to the flower-painter, though it may occasionally be used in the preparation of the duller class of greens. Gamboge is a most valuable pigment; its slightly greenish tinge scarcely allows it to stand alone as a yellow for flowers, but by the addition of a little cadmium this difficulty is quite got over. Its great use, however, is in the preparation of clear, full greens. Cadmium is a most valuable colour, and wholly indispensable. The reds include light red, vermilion-neither of them of much service for the present purpose-crimson lake, carmine, rose madder, brown madder, burnt sienna, and purple madder, all essential pigments. The more neutral colours include sepia, brown pink, Payne's grey, and neutral tint; all valuable colours, though but sparingly used. The two extremes, Chinese white and lampblack, close the list.

The brushes used should not be too small; dexterous handling can get very fine and delicate work from a brush that looks three times too big for its purpose, but it is much more difficult to get bolder work and large washes out of a small brush. We are ourselves continually driving our students into the use of larger brushes, or they would get into a niggling and petty style of work, all lines and scratches. The limitation of use in the case of the lead pencil is that it is so much more difficult to get tints than lines by its employment, but the charm of the brush consists in the fact that it will give us both equally well; it is absurd, therefore, to hamper oneself in its use, and to treat it as a pencil merely.

The paper employed should be of that happy medium which we can only describe as avoiding the two extremes of fineness and roughness, but if it must incline one way or the other, fineness of texture is the safer deviation. Large bold work may of course very often be advantageously worked on paper with a considerable tooth to it; but such paper would be unsuitable for things on the present scale. For such studies, we ourselves almost invariably use common white cartridge paper, and find it superior to any other. Having, however, duly provided all external aids-the examples, the colours, the brushes, and all the other paraphernalia-matters must at last come to those more subtle qualities without which all else is but vanity and vexation of spirit. The student urgently calls upon his tools to aid him in his toil, but the arrangement must be reciprocal, and they may as justly call upon their user for his share of the work; the patience that turns defeat into victory; the perseverance of the historic spider that taught his human companion so valuable a lesson; the resolute determination to do nothing but one's best. There is a fatal inclination in many beginners to tire of a thing before it is half done, and then to get on to the next. This getting on to the next carries no satisfaction with it, as there is soon the same palling and the same desire to get to the next, and the next, and the next, in wearisome monotony of impatience. No more, therefore, should be done at any one time than the interest in the work allows; as soon as a sense of weariness creeps in, it must either be resolutely beaten down and conquered, or the work must be put aside until the interest in it revives.

Words of warning are often necessary, both in art matters and most other things, but they carry no pleasure with them either to the donor or the recipient, and we feel that it is quite impossible thus to take leave of our readers. We turn,

then, gladly in another direction, and picture to ourselves many happy workers scattered the wide world over, and feel within ourselves a lively pleasure that any work of ours, enjoyable as it has been to ourselves, should thus be ministering to the pleasure of others. We shall never, probably, meet each other face to face, or, if we do, it will be but as passing strangers in the bustling streets, or, maybe, shot past each other at fifty miles an hour; yet we cannot feel you wholly strange, for we are fellow-students in the great world of Art-fellow-admirers of the glorious beauty of Nature. We wish you, then, most heartily, all success in your endeavours, whether they be the imitations of our own poor endeavours to depict these beauties, or whether presently, with a higher ambition, you stand face to face with great Nature herself, and woo her loveliness for your own possession.

MEADOW CRANE'S-BILL.-The meadow crane's-bill will afford our amateur an excellent amount of practice, as the variations of tint, both in the blossoms and foliage, are very marked and striking. The plant is very common in some localities, though in many parts of the country it would appear to be unknown. To those unfortunate people who have never had an opportunity of seeing the meadow crane'sbill in its native luxuriance, we hasten to appeal on behalf of our counterfeit presentment, and to assure them that its richness of tint is not artistic license on our own part, or the exaggerated colouring that is sometimes not unjustly attributed to the chromo-lithographic printer, but a record of sober fact. During the earlier part of the flowering period the foliage is a somewhat dull green, but as the season progresses the leaves assume the richest tints of yellow, red, and brown, the whole plant then glowing in brilliant colour. As some of our friends on seeing our drawing have been as unbelieving as courtesy would allow, it has struck us that perhaps others might feel a difficulty in the same way. We beg, therefore, to reiterate our statement, and to re-affirm that the natural facts will more than bear out our attempt to reproduce them. The lilac-purple of the flowers may be very well got by a mixture of crimson lake and cobalt, the veinings being some of them of pure crimson lake. French ultramarine, being a stronger colour than cobalt, may be substituted in the shaded portions. Care must be exercised in drawing the flowers and buds, as it may not be immediately apparent that these are in pairs, one ordinarily coming into blossom before the other. On the right-hand side of the group we see this very clearly, as one flower has just withered up, while the fruit is rapidly forming where the other was. The central piece shows this as well, but it is not so evident at first glance in the lower flower and bud, though a very slight inspection shows how it should be drawn. The leaves of the calyx have a slight striping of warmer colour. This may be applied first, and then the general green tint passed over all. In drawing the leaf it will be a very good plan to sketch, in the first place, all the radiating central lines that spring from the base of the leaf before attempting the drawing of the lobes and serrations. Brown-pink may be used in the deeper shades of green, while crimson lake and cadmium will be serviceable in the body of the leaf, the more scarlet tint being produced by the

painting of one of these colours over the other. Considerable care must be exercised in the painting in of the lines of the veining, and the raised look between the veins must be given by careful shading.

PRIMROSE.-Simple as they look, there are, perhaps, no flowers that are really more difficult to paint satisfactorily than the fair primrose blossoms. No exhibition of pictures seems to be complete without its drawing of a bird's nest in a setting of moss and primroses, but we are bound to add that in not a few cases the excellence of the intention has exceeded that of the actual performance. The mysterious delicacy of the colour seems almost unattainable, and there is no pigment in the colour box that, so far as we are aware, adequately renders it. Lemon yellow very considerably paled by water, not by Chinese white, seems to come as near to it as we may hope to get, but the opaque nature of the colour, even when freely diluted, gives an unpleasant heaviness and a bad surface to work the shade tints on. It is, therefore, sometimes discarded altogether, and a pleasanter tint produced, though, perhaps, not quite so true to nature, by using a very diluted wash of gamboge. The shades must be painted in very delicately, and the general pure groundwork of colour had better be laid in before they are attempted, or its purity may be sullied by the working up of the grey as the brush goes over it. The richer colour of the centre of the flower will, of course, not be overlooked, as this strengthening and intensifying of the tint is a very beautiful natural feature. The stems, pale green above, are often a delicate purple below, a colour that we may very well get by the blending together of crimson lake and cobalt. The few soft and scattered hairs on the stems must also be added, as the giving of these minor details imparts in the aggregate a greater suggestion of the truth of nature, trifling as they seem in themselves. The variation in colour in various parts of the leaf must also be duly noted, some parts that face the light being pale grey, while others, as they pass more or less into the shade, are of various tints of green. The rough and irregular surface of the leaves is a very characteristic feature.

JAPAN QUINCE.-The attractiveness of the present plant, and the fact that it comes into blossom at a time when blossoms are rare, will, no doubt, have made it very familiar to most of our readers. It is often called the japonica, a most misleading name. Its botanical title is the Pyrus japonica, meaning a plant of the Pyrus family that grows in Japan, and to call it japonica is simply to label it Japanese, a term as vague as to call the potato the Americana or the dandelion the Europæus. Thus much by way of protest against a common error: we proceed now to deal with the plant itself. At its first flowering, the Japan quince is often a mass of crimson blossom alone, and very beautiful it looks, but it is, perhaps, still more beautiful as time passes on, and the dark glossy leaves begin to burst from their enfolding buds. This appearance of the flowers before the leaves is a very

characteristic feature, and may be equally well seen in two other well-known and beautiful spring flowers, the naked-flowering jessamine and the delicate pink almond, the one spotting the dull red walls with its golden star, and the other a mass of pale rose colour. Having carefully drawn our spray of blossom, we now proceed to pass over it a delicate wash of carmine, except in the very lightest portions of some few of the petals, and where the golden bundles of stamens are to come. The former part will be left mere white paper, while the latter will have a wash of gamboge passed over them. This, of course, must not be done until the surrounding pink is quite dry, or the one tint will run into the other, and both will be spoiled. The gamboge is merely a ground tint, and, though it appears in some few places where the light strikes most fully, will mostly be covered over with a stronger tint, produced by the use of cadmium, while the darkest portions are shaded by means of sepia. A good deal of the more intense colour, both in the open flowers and the buds, will be obtained by using a fuller strength of carmine, but in the more purple portions crimson lake and neutral tint will be employed. The olive green of the calyx is produced by letting the crimson of the buds pass over those parts also, and then superadding the green. The variation in colour of the stem and the thin line of light on it are points that must be carefully noted, as also the mottlings of warmer colour on the fresh verdure of the newly-born leaves.

TULIP.—Tulips are such gay and attractive flowers that the amateur will, probably, soon be desirous of trying his artistic skill upon them. The colours of the "tulip race, where beauty plays her idle freaks," are so varied that a beautiful drawing may be made from a group of these alone, and we can only hope that our student readers will take an early opportunity of studying their charms from Nature. The two we have represented are sufficiently characteristic specimens, though they do not, by a very long way, cover all the gay possibilities of these richly-coloured flowers. Our directions must necessarily be confined to the two specimens before us, as our remarks could hardly be of any practical value to the beginner if we evolved, in addition from our own recollections, some half-dozen other tulips, and invited him to realise with us their supposititious colouring. To paint tulips at all, great purity of colour is needful, and a willing patience that will lovingly follow all the quaint mottlings and stripings of the original before them. The lower of the two flowers has a large amount of crimson lake in its markings, while madder brown, Prussian blue, and even a little black will be useful in the shade tints. The light edges that are seen on several of the petals must be carefully preserved, and though much of the groundwork of the flower is, from its position, grey, the little touches of pure white must be carefully preserved. The yellow of the upper blossom is a compound of gamboge and cadmium, but this must not be put on where the crimson markings come, or this strong ground colour will turn them into scarlet. The green of the stems and parts of the leaves is as pure and vivid a green as possible, a compound of gamboge and Prussian blue.

CROWN IMPERIAL.-The crown imperial is one of the old-fashioned flowers that decked the gardens of our grandsires, and may still occasionally be met with in the cottager's garden. Like many other beautiful things it has been held very cheaply, and, despite its overpoweringly dignified name, has been relegated to the companionship of wallflowers, sweet-williams, lavender, and all the other charming old denizens of the rustic garden. Its clusters of pendant flowers vary a good deal in colour, some being of a clear golden yellow, as fresh as buttercups, while others are even darker than the specimen we have figured. The darker variety has a certain gloomy and lurid look that is not altogether pleasing, but the rich orange-tinted blossoms of the subject of our illustration are very attractive. The colour is not a common one in the garden. Beginners are often very anxious to get away from the drudgery of the drawing to reach the delights of the painting part of the work, but it is always a mistake to evade any of the initial difficulties, as they are only burked, not killed, and will surely rise again in witness against the beginner. A fault is certainly no less a fault when arrayed in a conspicuous robe of orange or green, and it is far more visible to the eye of the critic. Good painting, then, can only be satisfactorily super-added on good drawing, and good drawing, to pass from generalities to the individual instance, is especially called for on the present occasion. The lines of both the foliage and the ring of blossoms are very graceful in nature, and a little inattention will mar their beauty sadly. The verdant crown of waving leaves must be very carefully expressed, or we shall not feel the charm of their undulations, the feature that gives them such distinctive individuality; and in the painting equal care must be paid, and the meanings of the different tints understood, the cold pale green of the polished leaves reflecting the light in some places; in others the light shining through the leaf itself, and making it a vivid green, while elsewhere again a darker and duller green expresses shade, or the shadow cast by one leaf upon another. The flowers are laid in with a mixture of cadmium and crimson lake, the veinings and shades having more of the latter colour in them, and in some of the darker portions the addition of a little sepia will be found very useful. The stamens are painted with a mixture of yellow ochre and gamboge. The rich mottling and variegation of colour in the stem must be carefully given.

APPLE.-In our remarks on the primrose we have asserted that no collection of pictures may be considered quite all it might be without at least one drawing of a nest, generally that of the chaffinch or the hedge-sparrow, and some primroses resting in quiet loveliness on a background of verdant moss. We might perhaps equally truly say that no exhibition of pictures and drawings is complete that does not include one of a spray of apple-blossom, for there is nothing more popular and attractive, nothing perhaps more beautiful. Our own sketch will, we trust, be but the prelude to an attempt from Nature on the part of our readers. The apple flowers and buds grow in clusters on little spurs that spring at intervals from the stems, and this clustering effect is a very attractive feature that must always be rendered in any sketch of