RALPH XiYON - 

 5 3 O We s t 27th Street 

 New Yoek 



April 8, 1926. 



Dear Mr. Deane : 



This is a very late answer to your kind letter but Spring 

 is just beginning to call the flowers in our wild garden and it seems 

 time that I let you i:now how the flowers and Lyons are getting along. 



Joan, the youngest Lyon, is a healthy baby of a year and a 

 half and Betty and Ralph Jr. are very much grown up. 



A large apartment house is being built a half a block from 

 our home which makes us feel a bit crowded. To provide a place for 

 a future home, should we build again, and meantime as an overflow 

 for our wild garden we have purchased about two acres of woods in 

 Bnglewood but near the level of the top of the palisades. The land 

 is not only covered with a good growth of trees but has a rocky rise 

 at one point and several swampy hollows. This will provide the 

 proper environment for everything from rock plants to orchids. 



Our present wild garden is very small, about 10 by 50 feet, 

 yet it contains hundreds of plants and small trees. 



Rock plants that once were found in the nearby woods, such 

 as rock pink, columbine, saxifrage and pale corydalis have reproduced 

 in great numbers. 



We also have hepatica, dutchman^s breeches and blood-root, 

 flowers that were once common but are now rare. 



Last year our trailing arbutus blossomed profusely and we 

 had thirteen moccasin flowers, five on one plant. 



The only orchids which we have found anywhere near Englewood 

 are the rattlesnake-plantain and the large twayblade . However we 

 have a few specimens from more distant points ranging from ladies- 

 tresses to giant purple orchids. Just how well these will grow 

 remains to be seen. 



I save part of the seed crop from each variety and distribute 

 these among friends so that in time this wild garden of ours, that 

 you inspired, will have a number of others to its credit. 



As far as we know, we are the only people in our town who 

 have succeeded with arbutus and moccasin flowers. The only secret 

 is plenty of rotted wood and leaves from the woods and water in dry 

 weather. In fact, my evergreens now shed such a quantity of needles 

 that little more is required except to keep the plants from over- 

 crowding. 



In order to keep Joan on the beach this summer we have taken 

 a cottage at Quogue , Long Island, While we shall miss the moun- 

 tains we have never tramped the Long Island woods and expect to find 

 much of interest. Although low and sandy, the ocean winds seem to 



