62 
House & Garden 
No's. 326 and 328 East 381K Street,New York City 
j Period 
appointments 
hand wrought 
. ii\ metal 
WING’S PEONIES 
Now is the time to start your Peony Garden. Once planted, 
it lasts forever, becoming more beautiful every year. 
We have Peonies of all types and classes, all colors, all 
prices, good strong roots that will bloom next spring. -Write 
for our catalog describing over five hundred varieties. We 
have all the good standard sorts and many new and rare ones 
which are found in very few growers’ collections. Our col¬ 
lection will be found interesting to the landscape gardener 
seeking mass effects, to the collector seeking rare new things, 
and to the amateur seeking the best of the standard varieties. 
Here are a few representative varieties: 
DucHesse de Nemours 
Francois Ortegat 
James Kelway 
Mme. de Galhau 
Marie Jacquin 
Mons. Jules Elie 
Mons. Martin Cahuzac 
Pure white crown, sulphur-white collar. 50c 
Large semi-rose type. Dark amaranth red In¬ 
termingled with brilliant golden stamens, 35c. 
Semi-rose type, flowers in large clusters. Rose- 
white, base of petal tipped yellow, $2.00. 
Large rose type. Very delicate glossy fleshy 
rose, shaded salmon. 75c. 
‘‘The Water Lily.” Semi-double. Rose-white 
with mass of golden stamens. Pink buds. $1.00. 
Immense flowers, pale lilac-rose shaded amber 
yellow. $1.00. 
Globular semi-rose. Very dark purple-garnet 
with blackish reflections. $7.00. 
Order today and ask for our big , descriptive catalog 
THE WING SEED CO. 
Box 1627 Mechanicsburg, Ohio 
Exploring the Bogs for Surgical Moss 
(Continued from page 29) 
num enterprise depends on the co-opera¬ 
tion of the many who, while they may 
not even know the sphagnum, do know’ 
the country in their own intimate neigh¬ 
borhood or are willing to undertake its 
exploration. 
Collecting the Moss 
For obvious reasons, the actual col¬ 
lection of material in bulk should not be 
attempted without specific instructions 
from the authorities in charge of this 
phase of Red Cross work. The general 
method of procedure, however, is some¬ 
what as follows: The worker locates a 
bed of desirable moss, seizes a double 
handful and pulls it up bodily. Then 
he strips off any muddy and decayed 
matter from the bottom and picks out 
any sticks and useless plants which may 
be included. Next he squeezes the 
water out of the sorted material, either 
by hand or by twisting in a towel, and 
puts the moss into a clean gunnysack. 
Every collector should appreciate at the 
outset that it is quality, not quantity, 
that determines the success of his ef¬ 
forts. The collecting is a simple 
enough process, but unless properly 
done a great deal of foreign and unde¬ 
sirable material will be included which 
will later have to be picked out. 
The bags of damp moss are carried 
out of the bog and hauled to some cen¬ 
tral place for “curing.” This is merely 
an air-drying process which can be read¬ 
ily accomplished by spreading the mate¬ 
rial loosely on the grass or on some sort 
of drying rack, preferably in the shade 
where there is a good circulation of air. 
Conditions are favorable at this time for 
further picking over the moss for the 
more complete removal of foreign matter. 
Curing by means of artificial heat is not 
recommended. 
The air-dried moss is packed loosely 
in bags or boxes and then sent to central 
depots where it is spread out on tables 
and very carefully hand-picked and 
sorted. This is a tedious process and 
must be done before the plants get too 
dry and brittle. The choice material 
goes into surgical dressings while the 
poorer grade, somewhat coarser and less 
absorbent, is acceptable for bed pads. 
Very poor stuff is discarded or used only 
for coarse packing or similar purposes. 
Making Surgical Pads 
There are different methods of making 
sphagnum surgical pads and the British 
type, which is simply a muslin bag filled 
with the moss, is quite distinct from the 
American type. The latter, as now made, 
consists of a layer of the absorbent 
sphagnum, backed with a thin layer of 
cotton, to prevent shifting, and enveloped 
in Scot tissue, a very thin wood-pulp 
paper; at the back of this pad is a layer 
of non-absorbent cotton to prevent the 
discharge from soaking through the band¬ 
age; the whole is covered in the usual 
manner with gauze to hold everything in 
place and present a soft absorbent sur¬ 
face to the wound. The pads are kept 
as clean as possible in the making and 
are sterilized in the field before use. 
The bed pads, used mostly for dysen¬ 
tery patients, are larger and are made 
up in much the same way as the surgical 
pads except that second-grade moss is 
used and several thicknesses of news¬ 
paper are sewed to the back. The dif¬ 
ferent types of dressings and pads are, 
of course, subject to modification from 
time to time as experience dictates. 
Sphagnum is playing a part of increas¬ 
ing importance in war hospital prac¬ 
tice. Our share in the collection and 
preparation of the material has only just 
begun. It is now of fundamental im¬ 
portance that every available source of 
this moss be made known as early as 
possible. Herein lies an opportunity for 
us “over here” to render a distinct pati i- 
otic service. 
The Misunderstood Louis XV Style 
(Continued from page 20) 
ments were dispensed with entirely. 
The color scheme, though usually 
light and cheerful, was not necessarily 
gaudy or frivolous with a dominant pre¬ 
dilection for white and gold. On the 
contrary, the scheme was often quiet 
and simple—pale light green, yellow, a 
warm medium green, citron, green blues 
or blue greens, light warm grays, fawns, 
or putty tones, and occasionally graining. 
Sometimes deeper tones occurred, such as 
fairly dark blues or greens, sufficiently 
grayed. All of these might be used with 
or without the accompaniment of gilding. 
The woodwork of one of the rooms illus¬ 
trated is of a moderately dark gray-blue 
relieved by a little gilding. 
The embellishment of the panels gave 
scope for the widest diversity of treat¬ 
ment. Certain of them were filled with 
decorative paintings—witness the work 
of such artists as Watteau or Fragonard 
—-depicting all manner of pastoral 
scenes; in other cases Chinese motifs 
found a place; again, in still other in¬ 
stances, graceful arabesque compositions 
were displayed and, sometimes, with 
these were incorporated Singeries or de¬ 
vices in which apes and monkeys, ar¬ 
rayed in human costume, played divert¬ 
ing pranks. "Occasionally panels were 
adorned with decorative designs consist¬ 
ing of chequerings or diapers along with 
characteristic motifs, such as appear in 
one of the cuts, or with floral wreaths, 
knotted ribbons and sundry other nat¬ 
uralistic devices. 
These decorative treatments were 
executed sometimes on the wood of the 
panel, sometimes on canvasses which 
were framed and- held in place by the 
boundary mouldings. From the 17th 
Century onward wall paper, printed with 
hand-blocks on sheets about 3’ long and 
a little over T wide, was in high favor. 
Patterns taken from velvets and bro¬ 
cades were printed upon them and like¬ 
wise pagoda designs and other Oriental 
subjects, foliage, flowers, birds, land¬ 
scapes and arabesques. Furthermore, 
fabrics such as silks, brocades and fig¬ 
ured damasks were used for panel fill¬ 
ings, while simpler but not less effective 
panel fillings were found in the printed 
or “painted” linens and chintzes with 
their abundant wealth of design and 
color. 
The Use of Mirrors 
Mirrors were freely employed to fill 
panels as also for the spaces above man¬ 
tels. At times decorative paintings filled 
the mirror heads as well as the small 
pahels over doors. The mantels were 
low, not extending higher than the shelf 
over the fireplace, and the surrounding 
trim was of wood, marble or stone, 
molded or carved in a manner consist¬ 
ent with the rest of the decoration. Cor¬ 
nices were without prominent projec¬ 
tions and oftentimes were coved. Ceil¬ 
ings might be decorated with elaborate 
frescoes or might be graced merely with 
moldings and a few appropriate molded 
ornaments, colored to comport with the 
(Continued on page 64) 
