splay.
The plants were fully developed, with rich foliage and graceful and
brilliant flowers.

[Illustration]

Ladies' Summer Fashions.

The changes for the season are not in general very striking. There is
said to be an unusual prevalence of sombre colors, with artistically
agreeing brighter ones. Striped silks, taffetas, and bareges, are all in
vogue.

For BONNETS the materials employed are very numerous. Paille de riz,
fine Florence straw, gauze, tulle, crape, and crepe lisse, are all
fashionable; silk, also, but it is not much in request. The stripes are
round, very open at the sides, but not standing out so much as they were
last season over the forehead; the crowns are also very low, and the
curtains full, and always short enough to be becoming. Among the most
elegant rice straw bonnets are those lined with white tulle and
ornamented with tufts of violets and snowdrops, the exterior decorated
with a wreath of the same flowers. Others have exteriors trimmed with a
light panache, composed of fuschias, heliotropes, and sprigs of
eglantine, mingled with long blades of grass (this ornament droops over
the brim on one side), the interior trimmed with small tufts of fruit
blossoms. Rice and Florence straw bonnets are trimmed with a petite
couronne of rose and white marabout tips, forming a tuft on each side;
the interior is lined with rose and white tulle bouillonnee, and tufts
of narrow blonde intermingled with small tips of rose marabouts.
Bouquets of white roses and flowers of the double-blossomed peach are
also in great request for these bonnets. The majority of gauze, tulle,
crape, and crepe bonnets, are trimmed in a light style with flowers or
marabouts. French chip, trimmed with broad lace, promises to be
considerably worn. Plain straw is always respectable, but it is less
worn this season than heretofore.

In PROMENADE AND CARRIAGE DRESSES the redingote form is adopted in plain
silks of a quiet kind, or striped, that are not showy, for the
promenade. Redingotes for carriage dress are much trimmed, some with
passementerie, lace, or ribbon; lace is much in vogue; ribbon is more
so; it admits of a great variety of forms; one of the most novel is a
cockle-shell wreath arranged in two rows of festoons up each side of
the front of the dress. Fashionable as flounces are for in-door and
carriage-dress, they are, comparatively speaking, little seen in the
promenade; the extreme width of the skirts, which do