acter of the flowers which he held up for the
audience while he talked about them they were well worth the money. I
regret that we are unable to give a verbatim report of his talk, with
the names of the varieties, but this information must be secured from
him at some later time. In part he said:

"I have spent the last fifteen years in making a good
collection of peonies. I have gone all over the world for
peonies and have brought together some of the finest peonies
from all the noted growers and horticulturists. In my
collection I have over 400 hundred varieties, that is, what I
am growing at my home. I have brought here today of course a
great many peonies of the later varieties. I have brought these
here from an educational standpoint so that the people might
see some of the rare ones that they might have heard about or
read about and see them and know of these varieties. Last year
I made an exhibit and showed hundreds of them. This year I have
brought just a few choice things."

Rev. C. S. Harrison spoke in his usual inspiring way, but with such force
and speed that our stenographer was unable to pick him up, which we
sincerely regret. We all know Mr. Harrison as an enthusiast in flowers.
He has met with us year after year at both annual gatherings. While he
is eighty-three years old yet what he has to say and the way he says it
still have the ring and inspiration of youth. He proposed the
organization of a peony society for the Northwest, and a show of hands
indicating there was material present to perfect such an organization
the plans were laid therefor. Our reporter got this far:

"I have attended the national peony shows of Boston and New York, and
they cannot hold a candle to your peonies, mark that! There is
something in your soil and in your climate which brings them to the
front."

Prof. F. L. Washburn was to tell us something about the white pine
blister rust, but he failed to inflict upon us a long technical talk,
and from what he said all the reporter got was this, from which however
one could well judge what was in his thought. "We have found in
Minnesota a disease on the white pine called the 'white pine blister
rust.' One stage of this disease is on the gooseberry or currant, that
is, we find it now on the white pine and going to the gooseberry or
currant. We went to the governor, state treasurer and state auditor and
obtained $1,000 for