FLOWERS, PLANTS AND ORNAMENTALS. 285 



Here are the j^loi-ious peouies. While ut their best they are 

 peerless. There is nothiug to match them. Here are 50,000 

 in hundreds of varieties. You go out to visit them. You are 

 welcomed like a god. You wade in billows of fragrance that 

 float all around them. How they are making their toilet. 

 Never a beautiful maiden preparing for her nuptials put on 

 fairer garments. Tens of tliousands smile ujoon ^'ou, vieing 

 with each other to please you. How winsome the lure of these 

 beautiful Howers. AVhile they last you want to be with them. 

 And here are thousands of seedlings. Some of them of su- 

 perior beauty which will have a future. 



Here are pyrethrums. None but the Divine Artist could 

 paint those delicate petals. 



The boltonias have their place in late summer niien most 

 needed. Polygonums and bocconias have their place in some 

 background, but don't give them too mueli leeway, for they 

 want the earth if they can get it. 



The platyeodons, the white, blue and double, are among 

 the hardiest of our perennials and are very satisfactory. 



The gaillardias, stokes asters, digitalis and shasta daisies 

 are fine, but they need especial winter protection. The lu- 

 pinus would be superb, but it will damp off badly. 



GREAT FAMILY OF PHLOXES. 



The great family of phloxes reach from early spring until 

 late in the fall. The subulata, or creeping variety, cover the 

 ground with bloom in early spring. The suifruticosa come 

 next, with the stately Miss Lingard in the lead, but in the 

 main this family is not satisfactory. 



Then comes the paniculata, often called decussata. This 

 great family is the real thing. They are natives of America. 

 Growing and thriving in the wild like a robust Indian maiden, 

 they were taken to Europe and underwent such a transforma- 

 tion that they came back to us in garments fit for the courts 

 of kings. 



In the early stages of transformation there is a tendency 



