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of moss. Put ferns all around the base, 

 and, if possible, get long sprays of cross 

 vine to trail over the jar's edge, or to climb 

 the wall back of it. Its green, stiff, waxy 

 leaves, mottled with red and brown, give a 

 needed shadow to the vivid flowers, and 

 make up a true vernal harmony. Unless 

 you can make some such use of them, leave 

 the maple flowers to glorify their native 

 swamp. Convention spoils them utterly. 

 A vase suits them about as well as a dress- 

 coat would a Seminole or Cherokee chief. 



Let alone always the sick-sweet redbud. 

 It is well named Judas-tree. Not only does 

 it stupefy the foolish early bees, but its sap 

 makes the hand that plucks it itch and 

 burn, and is almost as irritant as the cling- 

 ing poison-oak. 



A little later, when dogwoods flower, you 

 may come home with sheaves of bloom. 

 Then it is throughout the South and West 

 " corn-planting time," and homely folk say 

 that the blossoming is an infallible " sign " 

 for the harvest. If the flowers are few, 

 corn will be " all nubbins, and few at that "; 

 if the woods are white, cribs and barns will 

 overflow. 



As a cut flower the dogwood has but one 

 proper place namely, the fireplace. Stuck 



