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picture is composed may easily be seen, though at the ordinary distance of vision they blend together so as to form a soft and harmonious whole.

These are the Roman mosaics.

The Florentine mosaics are formed on a somewhat different plan. There is a similar basis or foundation for the work, formed of some substance that can be softened by heat to hold and retain the stones which make the picture, but instead of bars placed perpendicularly the design® is formed of flat stones laid horizontally like the pavement of a floor.

Of course these two methods are adapted to different kinds of designs. The Florentine style, for example, is best fitted to represent flowers, where each leaf, and each petal, being nearly uniform in color through its whole extent, can be formed of a single stone. The Roman method on the other hand, is suited for representations of landscapes, edifices, animals, and the human face and figure, in all of which there are gradations of color passing into each other by soft blendings, which of course can only be imitated by a great number of minute parts placed side by side and in close juxtaposition. These parts must be so small that at the distance at which they are to be ordinarily viewed they shall not be seen in

dividually, but that the light and color coming from them shall be blended together in the eye, so that the different hues and shades, though formed by distinct portions of the work which are really bounded by sharp lines of division, shall pass into each other on the retina of the eye, by insensible gradations.

In the Florentine mosaics on the other hand, the several portions of the work, are seen, and are meant to be seen, distinctly. There is the lily of the valley for instance, which is represented by small white stones for the flowers, and green ones for the leaves, and brown ones for the stems, and so with a multitude of other flowers.

The mosaic makers have a great number of fine-grained stones at hand to form the different parts of the flowers. The basis of each work is of black marble which is covered however with a species of cement that will cause the pieces forming the mosaic to adhere. These pieces are first cut into thin plates, and from these plates the leaves and petals of the various flowers are formed.

For blue flowers a mineral called turquoise is used, for green leaves lapis lazuli and malachite. Red flowers are formed from plates of coral, and yellow from chalcedony.

The mosaics which travellers are chiefly interested in, in Florence, are personal ornaments, which consist mainly of representations of flowers and bouquets of flowers, some of the last being very elaborate and exquisitely beautiful. Some mosaics are however very large, and are formed into tables and other articles of furniture. These however are so costly that the finer specimens are only to be seen in royal palaces or great national museums.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SOUVENIR.

On their return from the palace, Mrs. Willey took a carriage for herself and Wilhelmina, leaving the others to walk, as they wished to go slowly along the streets and see the mosaics and other works of art and curiosities in the shop windows.

The party on foot, in the progress of their walk went across the river-for as the reader is probably aware, the city of Florence occupies both sides of a beautiful river called the Arnoby a very curious bridge. Indeed the structure might have been called a street rather than a bridge, for there was a row of shops and houses on each side of it, with a roadway and sidewalks between them. Were it not for certain openings among these buildings here and there, no one would imagine, in passing along, that he was walking upon a bridge, and over a rapid running river.

The bridge itself, and also the buildings upon

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