for the handling even though they fade. Many leaf odors are latent 
until they are touched or bruised, and who does not love to finger 
and smell them? So when we send beautiful flowers to the hospital 
let us think as well of the blind in their shadowed homes, and add 
lavender, southernwood, thyme, sweet basil, and bergamot to our 
rose geranium, lemon verbena, lemon balm, cinnamon shrub, and 
sweetbriar. Even tansy, sage, and sassafras may carry charm in 
their odors for many. 
The Philadelphia Fruit, Flower, and Ice Mission receives at its 
distributing center in town the hampers from its various local branches 
and sends according to their needs the flowers to all the hospitals, 
homes for the aged or incurables, the penitentiary, and social centers. 
Other hampers go direct from the local branches to the Visiting Nurse 
Society and the College Settlement, for distribution in the tenements. 
The Union Transfer collects the hampers at the station in town and 
delivers them free of charge. They are plainly marked with the 
name of the branch and returned that day. Private baskets with the 
owner's name clearly painted on the basket can be sent in the same 
manner, and addressed tags are kept in every package room. Each 
local center meets once a week at its tying and packing place working 
from 8 to 9 130 a. m. A large table for the flowers to be shaken upon 
for arranging, scissors, and raffia are all that is needed, but a few stools 
are very much to be desired. It is well to have this gathering place 
near the station (in Haverford they have the use of a small express 
office), as clusters or baskets of flowers can be deposited by motors, 
left by people hurrying for trains, or passed quickly out by residents 
of other towns, during the few moments that the train stops. 
A word on the practical method of preparation: As the flowers 
must be ready so early, it is well to pick them late the evening before 
and let them stand in a bucket of water out of doors to "harden." 
They transport much better. Also the pungent and useful marigold 
loses much of its odor when so treated. Small flowers like pansies, 
violets, daisies, sweet peas, and the brittle nasturtium if tied in loose 
clusters when picked can be safely handled and made into bouquets 
by one person. Even if you have only a few blossoms, send them. 
They are all welcome to the Mission folk and doubly so to the poor 
recipients in hot alleys, stifling rooms, or hospital wards. There are 
many flowers to be gathered in the fields and many children bring 
them to us as their contribution. I have always thought that this 
should be encouraged quite as much for the sake of the more fortunate 
child who gathers and gives of its abundance as for the waif who 
receives. Small contributors often appear with a tightly clutched, 
