After a great deal of practice I really think I have evolved a way of packing cut flowers which is both economical and satisfactory. I collect all the linen-draper's and milliner's cardboard boxes that I possibly can; while these remain good, my friends send them back to me by parcel post. The flowers are picked over-night, and put into large pans of water, keeping each kind in separate bunches. In the morning they are dried, and the different bunches are rolled up, fairly tightly, in newspaper-the great point being to exclude the air entirely both from the stalks and flowers. These bundles are then laid flat in the boxes; the tighter they are packed, without actually crushing them, the better they travel. The lid is then put on, the box tied up with string, and sent to the station in time for an early train.

When friends themselves take away the flowers, a box is unnecessary, as the separate bundles can be tied up together in some large sheets of newspaper.