HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 133 



crimson flo\yer of medium gro\\i:h, the gaillardia, that has 

 a form and color that suits it well to the garden. The 

 erect forms and rich color of the gladioli also give their 

 splendid flowers a right to take their place in the flower 

 garden. 



Of the lower-growing types, suited to formal places 

 where they stand alone, as far as a background of trees 

 and shrubs go, we find the brilliant, yellow, free, all 

 summer blooming coreopsis lanceolata ; and larger sized 

 dielytra or dicentra spectabilis; and the sweet-william, 

 dianthus barbatus, with flowers of various hues, red, 

 white, etc., excepting blue and yellow, growing on solid 

 stems a foot high, in flat terminal clusters ; and the lovely 

 carpet-forming, creeping, phlox subulata, with its broad 

 patches, in spring, of minute red and white flowers. 



A whole paragraph would not seem too much for the 

 proper discussion of the merits of the narcissus family, 

 the daintiest, perhaps, of all plants that belong dis- 

 tinctly to the garden. Narcissi, or daffodils, have long, 

 narrow, simple, interesting leaves that keep erect and 

 effective, and, above all, bear in a dignified way of 

 their o^va yellow or white flowers half an inch across. 

 Lovely sulphur and yellow colors specially characterize 

 them, and the shape of the flower is curious and beau- 

 tiful in every way, and quite difl&cult to describe. The 

 poet's narcissus, the most beautiful of narcissi, snow- 

 white at the base of the flower, ^^ith a crown of saffron 

 yellow bordered \\ith scarlet, belongs to the same sec- 

 tion of plants. The best daffodils are N. pseudo-nar- 

 cissus, the Lenten lily, with solitary flowers of a bright 

 sulphur; N. bicolor, pale yellow, and N. princeps, white, 

 and N. incomparabilis, with a larger flower and a shorter 

 crown, two and a half inches wide, with a paler base. 



