528 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



porch, at the corner of the house, almost anywhere except in the 

 center of the lawn. Make the ground rich, secure a strong root 

 and plant it with care; then wait. The little clump will not only 

 have a beauty and interest of its own, but it will add immensely 

 to the furniture of the yard. About its base one may plant stray 

 bulbs of glowing tulips or dainty snowdrops and lilies-of-the- 

 valley; and these may be followed with pansies and phlox and 

 other simple folk. Very soon one finds himself deeply interested 

 in these random and detached pictures, and almost before he is 

 aware he finds that he has rounded off the corners of the house, 



i 



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3>^'^^i 





174.— A careless corner. The growth came from a sod dug in a swale in earlj' spring. 

 Clematis and purple cupatorium, and lesser weeds, comprise the colony. 



made snug little arbors of wild grapes and clematis, covered the 

 rear fence and the outhouse with actinidia and bitter-sweet, and 

 has thrown in dashes of color with hollyhocks, cannas and lilies, 

 and has tied the foundations of the buildings to the greensward 

 by low strands of vines or deft bits of planting. He soon comes 

 to feel that flowers are most expressive of the best emotions when 

 they are daintily dropped in here and there against a background 

 of foliage. Presently he rebels at the bold, harsh and impudent 

 designs of some of the gardeners, and grows into a pure and sub 

 dued love of the plant forms and verdure. He may still like the 

 weeping and cut-leaved and party colored trees of the horticultur- 

 ist, but he sees that their best effects are to be had when they 



