Leghorn bonnets are still worn, though in July and August more dress hats of silk, crape, and lace will be seen. The Leghorns are in unusually good shapes, and trimmed very simply, either with straw, marabout plumes, or plain white ribbons. We speak of the prevailing styles; of course, many tastes are to be suited, and some people would flounce a moir antique with the same, if they thought it would look more expensive, and for this class of community ribbons and garlands cannot be too profuse even on a Leghorn, which, if handsome, is generally considered, like a rich silk, to "have no need of ornament." There is a profusion of plain straws of every shape and cost. We notice that they come close, or nearly so, under the chin, and the whole bonnet is a gradual slope from the brim to the crown. They are trimmed in every variety of style, ruches of narrow ribbon box-plaited on, numerous flat bows of ribbon an inch in width disposed as a wreath, etc. etc. Ribbons, as a general thing, are much narrower than the past season, and those long scarf-like strings are not considered in good taste. We have before spoken of the profusion of trimming inside the brim. Blonde caps—a narrow edge of blonde usually sewn upon a broad or wash-blonde lace—are usually almost invariably used to soften the effect of the flowers and ribbon bows that encircle the face. The flowers used are of the most delicate description, made of crape, in strict imitation of nature. Flag flowers, convolvulus, lilac sprays, field violets, and all the more delicate blossoms, are exquisitely reproduced.
FASHION.
Footnotes
[1] Hence the term employed by Liebig and his followers, eremacausis, or slow-burning.
[2] "The colorless, fresh-cut surfaces of a potato, of a turnip, or of an apple, when exposed to the air, soon become brown. In all such substances, the presence of a certain quantity of water, by which the molecules are enabled to move freely on one another, is a condition necessary to the production, by temporary contact with air, of a change in form and composition, a resolving of the original body into new products, which continues uninterrupted till no part of the original compound is left. This process has been distinguished by the name of putrefaction."—Liebig.
[3] The flour and biscuit which are taken out to sea in the British navy are packed in casks of wrought-iron. These were formerly painted, to prevent rust, and also to make them water-tight; but the paint was found to give a bad taste to the flour, &c., and they are now coated outside with a waterproof composition of caoutchouc, black resin, and Venice turpentine.
[4] Hereafter the subject of Perspective will be fully treated of; before Perspective can be mastered, it is absolutely necessary that the pupil should be able to sketch by the assistance of the eye.