PREFACE 



The plan of this book is simple. The plants are arranged in the order 

 of the months in which they bloom, while for the reader's convenience a 

 plant which flowers in more months than one is listed afresh in each appro- 

 priate month, though the full description of its habit and the directions 

 for its culture are given only where it makes its first appearance. 



In the great majority of cases, the dates of bloom are taken from 

 personal observations in the vicinity of Boston. The season about New 

 York is, generally speaking, about ten days earlier. A rough and ready 

 calculation allows six days' difference to every degree of latitude. 



Yet in this matter of the date of bloom the reader must understand 

 that nothing like exactness is possible. All that can be claimed is the 

 representation of a fair average. The season of bloom is very irregular, 

 often varying as much as a fortnight in the, spring. But though early 

 dates may vary, by June first all irregularities seem to disappear, and the 

 reader can be confident that whatever are the dates of bloom, the succession 

 of bloom remains invariable. 



As the plants are divided according to the months in which they first 

 bloom, so they are subdivided according to color. In each month's list of 

 blooming plants there are nine color groups, including " parti-colored," i.e., 

 those plants in which each blossom is variegated, and " various," i.e., those 

 in which the color of the blossoms vary. 



Since color is the chief glory of a garden, much stress has been laid 

 upon it throughout the preparation of the book. Almost every flower 

 mentioned has been accurately compared with the appended color chart, 

 and in the column devoted to that purpose it bears its appropriate color 

 number, while above this in quotation marks is the color ascribed to it by 

 some reliable authority. 



The reader must remember, however, that with matters of color it is 

 much as with matters of taste. One may call the wood violet purple and 

 another insist that it is blue, while red fades so insensibly into pink, and 

 yellow blends so imperceptibly into orange, that he is an artist indeed who 

 can define the precise point where one becomes the other. It must also 

 be borne in mind that the same flower may vary in color in different 

 localities and the same plant may put forth blossoms of varying shades. 

 And yet, though you may quarrel with the division lines, they are just in 

 the main and are not further wrong than others might well be. 



A word or two is needed concerning the comprehensiveness of this 



viii 



