Artificial flowers are imitations of real flowers, made of various materials. These are not a modern invention. The Romans excelled in the art of imitating flowers in wax, and in this branch of the art attained a high degree of perfection. The Egyptian artificial flowers were made of thin plates of horn stained in different colours, sometimes also of leaves of copper gilt or silvered over. In modern times the Italians were the first to acquire celebrity for the skill and taste they displayed in this manufacture, but they are now far surpassed by English and French manufacturers, but more especially by the latter. During the Victorian period cambric, muslin, satin, velvet, and other woven fabrics, feathers, india-rubber, blown glass, mother of pearl, brass, etc were all employed in making artificial flowers, later silk and plastic were more commonly used, and good results may be had from dyed wood. Research Artificial Flowers
Flax or linseed is a popular name of plants of the genusLinum, family Linaceae of which there are roughly 100 species. They are herbs or small shrubs with narrow leaves and yellow, blue or white flowers arranged in variously formed cymes. They occur in warm and temperate regions over the world. The cultivated species is Linum usitatissimum. The fibre which is used for making thread, and cloth called linen, cambric, lawn, lace, etc, consists of the woody bundles of the slender stalks. The fine fibres may be so separated as to be spun-into threads as fine as silk. A most useful oil is expressed from the seeds, and the residue, called linseed-cake, is one of the most fattening kinds of food for cattle. When the plant is ripe it is pulled up by the roots, tied together in little bundles, and usually left upright on the field until it becomes dry, when the seeds are separated, either by beating on a cloth or by passing the stems through an iron comb. The process of removing the seeds is called rippling. The stalks are then retted or rotted in water to free the flaxen fibre from the woody core or boon of the stem. Two operations are necessary to separate the fibres from the woody part of the stem. Traditionally the flax was first broken by means of a wooden handle and grooved board, or by revolving grooved rollers, and then the boon or woody part was entirely separated from the fibre by a broad flat wooden blade called a scutching blade, or later by a machine in which a number of knives' attached to the arms of a vertical wheel hit the flax in the direction of its length. The flax was next heckled, or combed with a sort of iron comb, and was then ready for spinning. Research Flax
A ruff was a circular collar of cambric or lawn in the form of a starched and crimped or pleated frill, fashionable in England between 1550 and 1630 after arriving arrived from France. Ruffs were generally about seven centimetres deep, with a man's ruff being higher at the back than the front so as to follow the line of the jaw. Research Ruff
Coventry (recorded in the Domesday Book as Couentreu) is an industrial city in the West Midlands, England. It suffered heavy bombing during the Second World War.
Coventry was formerly surrounded with lofty walls and had twelve gates, and was the see of a bishop early conjoined with Lichfield. Parliaments were convened here by the earlier monarchs of England, several of whom occasionally resided in the place. Pageants and processions were celebrated in old times with great magnificence, and a remnant of these still exists in the processional show in honour of Lady Godiva. For a long time Coventry was the centre of the ribbontrade, and was also famed for its manufacture of silk fabrics, cambric frilling, cottons, watches, machinery, and bicycles.
Abbreviations
Research Artificial Flowers
