HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 1913 
If the pot containing the plant is placed in another 
that is plugged at the bottom leakage is eliminated 
leather has a spring holder at the top 
which slips around the receiver and holds 
the pad firmly in place. Attached to brass 
rings on the pad is a set of ruled cards 
with a thumb index arranged alphabetic- 
ally for the list of telephone numbers, and 
on top of these, mounted on a silk covered 
board is a little memorandum pad contain¬ 
ing nearly one hundred sheets, with a lead 
pencil in a little holder at the top. The 
pad may be had in either red, green or 
brown leather, and the memorandum 
sheets can be renewed whenever required, 
as the piece of cardboard at the back fits 
into a slit in the silk covering. 
A New Hatbox Idea 
T HE idea, borrowed from France, of 
covering boxes for hats, waists and 
other articles of clothing with cretonne 
and fitting them into a wooden frame, thus 
making a serviceable piece of furniture, 
has proved wonderfully popular not only 
for summer cottages, but for luxurious 
bedrooms and boudoirs in city houses as 
well. The craze for cretonne showing 
hright-colored figures on a black back¬ 
ground has extended to this class of fur¬ 
nishings, and a tall, cabinet-like arrange¬ 
ment recently seen had a frame of light 
wood enclosing a hatbox and a number of 
smaller boxes covered with black cretonne 
that was decorated with flowers and large 
birds of paradise in the gayest of colors. 
The hatbox was particularly effective, as 
the cretonne was put on so that there was 
a brilliant bird on each side. 
If the work is carefully carried out there 
need be nothing about this space-saver that 
is not decorative as well as useful. 
A good window arrangement. The vase in the center 
may contain growing or cut flowers 
too common supposition that anything is 
good enough for the window since it is 
sure to die in a short time. A good idea 
would be to go out to a greenhouse and 
look over the stock and buy a few small 
things for experiment. 
Where there is no objection to deep 
boxes they could be placed flush with the 
window on brackets. While larger plants 
could be used here than in cases already 
mentioned, it would always be well to keep 
in mind the necessity of keeping the center 
low. Fill entirely with Grevellia robusta 
or Grevellia in the center and Pandanus 
Veitchii on the ends. Very small plants 
of Boston fern planted close will make a 
bank of green. The plants should be out 
of very small pots and well rooted. 
Acalypha macafeana small is good. A 
comparatively little used house plant is 
Phoenix rocbelenii. It is just as hardy as 
the kentia with the advantage of having 
a more graceful habit. It will do well in 
any location. 
Where boxes or other such arrange¬ 
ments are objected to, side brackets can be 
used to hold plants. I do not mean the 
cumbersome things that have been night¬ 
mares for generations, but those of wire 
and nickel make that are serviceable and 
ornamental. At the side of the window 
with well chosen plants they add a deco¬ 
rative effect. 
A Telephone Memorandum Pad 
I T is not always convenient to keep the 
telephone receiver on a desk, and yet 
there is an almost constant necessity for 
pad and pencil in connection with one’s 
telephone calls. A compact little combina¬ 
tion pad and telephone list that may be at¬ 
tached directly to the instrument is one of 
the newest contrivances for the benefit of 
the busy person. 
A thick foundation pad covered with 
A compact little combination pad and telephone list 
attached to the instrument itself 
named, or alone, cannot be fully appreci¬ 
ated until it has been experimented with, 
when individual tastes will find ever in¬ 
creasing uses for it. 
Fittonia is considered a hothouse plant, 
but it will do well in the box suggested. 
Small plants should of course be chosen 
and a combination of this with Pandanus 
Veitchii will be very attractive. It might 
be well to say that the plants that are usu¬ 
ally tall growers should be very small; 
nothing larger than the thumb pots in 
which they have become somewhat pot- 
bound should be used. It would be ad¬ 
visable to put them in the box without 
turning out of the pot. Doing this will 
restrict their growth and keep them within 
bounds. Where the pots are plunged, the 
ground work, whether of mint, panicum, 
or lycopodium will cover them; but care 
in watering must be used to see that the 
pots get their share of water. 
Peperomia is decidedly ornamental be¬ 
cause of the peculiar marking of the leaves. 
Keep them low so that they may be looked 
down upon to get the best effect. A few 
at the ends of the window box might be 
suggested. 
In cases where there is objection to the 
use of the window box, flat pans should be 
substituted. A pan such as this filled in 
the center with sedum and edged with 
mint, gives a somewhat stiff but attractive 
effect, while if the edging is made with 
panicum or lycopodium it will be more 
graceful. 
Numberless details of the different 
plant possibilities might be given here 
without creating an atom of the impres¬ 
sion that a little experimenting will effect; 
the object sought is therefore tc inaugu¬ 
rate a better understanding in the matter 
of window decoration and to put it on a 
better standing by doing away with the all 
