Tracing Of Green Branches at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Silene alba is the white campion, growing to 3 feet high with small, white flowers of five forked petals. The flowers arise from oval, inflated pods. They have a light perfume and are favored by moths. Plants have few leaves at the bottom of the stem so plant them a scant 6 inches apart. S. noctiflora is called the night-flowering catchfly and is often confused with alba. This flower, however, arises from a pod or tiny balloon that is prettily marked with a tracing of green branches joined with fine green lines.

The weeping birch (Betula pendula Tristis') has been in our backyard garden for about six years. The white-barked trunk is 6 feet high then splays out with branches that now cover a circle with a 12-foot diameter. In the summer it is a cool, green haven on a hot day; in fall a Shower of golden leaves; but in winter when the branches sparkle after an ice storm or are lightly frosted with snow, it is a sight beautiful to see.

REPOUSSE, re-pod-sa" (Fr. for "pushed back"), in metalwork, the process of forcing a thin sheet of metal into a relief pattern by hammering it on the reverse surface. The process involves: (1) tracing a design on the surface of a metal sheet or "blank"; (2) fixing the blank to a pitch block or bowl, filled with a moderately yielding substance composed of pitch mixed with brick dust or plaster of paris, rosin, and an emollient, such as tallow; (3) outlining the tracing by hammering a groove along the lines of the design with a tracing tool; and (4) hammering out the design in relief with raising tools.