The use of the plant in decorative designs.
A 1912 Chicago-area school manual of plant-based decorative design by Maude Lawrence and Caroline Sheldon, published by Scott, Foresman & Co. for students and teachers of interior decoration and painting. Its plates show stylised plant motifs reduced to flat, geometric stencil-like shapes arranged as all-over patterns, cut-out units, and border strips in muted tones. A designer could take from them the method of simplifying leaves and blossoms into bold silhouettes and repeating them in rows, frames and bands.
