136 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



on this account the lawn is a good deal debarred from 

 using it. 



Delphiniums (larkspurs) make us think of old gardens 

 and childhood days, and their beauties are certainly 

 great if the foliage would only make as good an effect in 

 the garden as the flowers, which are dainty and charm- 

 ing, with unusual form and color. Rose-mallows and 

 marsh-mallows have large, splendid flowers, both rose 

 and white, but the leaves are not attractive in habit. 

 Foxgloves are effective and curious in appearance, and 

 poppies are splendid in red and scarlet color, but their 

 foliage in the garden leaves much to be desired. 



Peonies have splendid, large, early flowers, with pure 

 rich tints of solid red or w^hite, and develop into large 

 clumps, which stand in borders and corners of the 

 grounds, their leaves being gathered into loose masses 

 which fall into decay in late summer. The single peo- 

 nies, because the flowers are single and the foliage more 

 compact, are better suited to the garden. There are a 

 great many other attractive herbaceous plants which 

 need planting by themselves, behind or mixed with 

 shrubs and trees, where the peculiarity of their habit will 

 not mar the general effect of the lawn, and where abun- 

 dant bloom can be cut from them. Notable among these 

 plants may be mentioned the great yellow sunflowers, 

 six to eight feet high ; the free-blooming, showy, black- 

 eyed Susans ; rudbeckias ; helenium autumnale ; golden-rod 

 or solidagos ; the giant daisy, pyrethrum or chrysanthe- 

 mum uliginosum, and the loose-headed salvias. 



It seems to be treating so lovely a class of plants as 

 the perennials with actual discourtesy to pass them by 

 with no more detailed mention of the few named, and 

 with entire neglect of the many beautiful kinds that are 



