o'clock train, yesterday, which brought to us Mr. Wilson! I present 
Mr. Wilson." 
The foregoing was the delightful introduction to a delightful 
entertainment offered by the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess 
Counties to the Member Clubs of the Garden Club or America. 
The meeting took place in the ballroom of the Colony Club, New York, 
on March 19th. A large and enthusiastic audience listened to Mr. 
E. H. Wilson's interesting illustrated talk on "The Flowers and 
Gardens of Japan." Fortunately many distant members who were in 
New York for the Spring Meeting were able to stay over for this well- 
timed, enjoyable and generously hospitable occasion. 
You may be interested to know that the " Nine of Spades " was the The "Nine 
of Soades" 
original name of the Short Hills Garden Club, many years ago, when ^ 
only nine women formed it and worked in their own gardens. 
A dozen members of Easthampton and the Lenox Garden Clubs, ^^''l'^^ ™ Prac- 
have been taking a course in practical gardening at the New York 
Botanical Gardens, Bronx Park. They have been mixing soils, 
planting seeds in flats, thinning, transplanting, budding and pruning. 
They were especially interested in the work of budding roses on stock 
and hope to use their acquired knowledge in their own gardens this 
summer. They had two demonstrations of cross fertilization and 
hybridization and were shown the intricacies of keeping the records 
of these crosses. 
Indeed they were so fired with a desire to hybridize that their 
friends are apprehensive of the results; but, as out of 100 cross fer- 
tilizations only one or two ever show any great variation from the 
parents and even then it takes two years before 5^ou are sure of the 
strain, the Horticultural world need not be terribly agitated over 
the advent of a strange and weird new flora, the plants are much more 
apt to "revert to type." 
From Mrs. John A. Stewart, Jr. President of the Short Hills Gar- Suggestion 
1 y-,1 , 1 r n • , • for a Summer 
den Club comes the lollowmg suggestion: 
There may possibly be hostesses who, when they are notified that 
they are to have such a meeting, might be at a loss for an entertain- 
ment. In these days when so much is written and said about flower 
arrangement, the following plan might be amusing as well as in- 
structive. 
The hostess should gather flowers and foKage, both cultivated 
and wild, putting them in many containers so they may be easily 
handled — each member to provide her own receptacle and, before 
those present, make an artistic arrangement from the flowers pro- 
vided. Of course the advice and criticism of a professional would be 
very advantageous, but plenty of amusement may result and much 
may be learned from the friendly jeers or plaudits of the company. 
55 
