88 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



wormwood, of shiftless and straggling habit, and in season the 

 morphine poppy of China, that life saver or destroyer (according 

 to its use) whitens the ground with its falling petals, while close by 

 is one of those willows whose parent stock wept o'er the grave of 

 the prisoner of St. Helena. At its base grew a clump of conium 

 (poison hemlock), Athens' unrighteous death draught for phil- 

 osopher and criminal. A thicket of nicotianas (tobacco plant) 

 with their tough green leaves and tropical growth represents a cen- 

 tury or more of slavery for the negro cultivators and probably many 

 centuries yet to come of slavery to consumers. In the background 

 is the Paradise Tree or Tree of Heaven, the unfairly maligned 

 though odorous root-spreading ailanthus. 



Lilies were grown in large beds set generally in sandy leaf mold. 

 There were many varieties, from the maidenly shy, naiad-like drooping 

 lily of the valley that seeks shade and grows best in damp soil, to the 

 sturdy, brazen, gold-banded lily of Japan, through all gradations of 

 Easter lily, aggressive, staring tiger lily, yellow field lily, 

 oddly spotted toad lily, the Tricytis hirta from Japan, and near it, 

 the Tigridia, every morning showing its tender newly-born bizarre 

 blossoms, the low growing, variegated leaved Funkia, or day lily, 

 the St. Bruno's lily and blackberry lily, also narcissi in dazzling hue. 



Large beds of high stalked perennial phloxes, nodding standards 

 of flaming color half the summer, and pink and white close to the 

 ground patches of phlox subulata, also Astilbe japonica, the latter 

 forced in winter, were plentifully scattered through the grounds. 

 Beds of blue-eyed forget-me-nots and clumps of dog-faced pansies were 

 planted profusely and mind-labeled flowers that talk, Aquilegia 

 from the native red and yellow to the cultivated browns and grays, 

 gave charming variety, and bulbs from scillae to sword-leaved gladioli 

 grew in rare abandon and great variety. No longer did June sadly 

 view the shriveled dying blossoms of iris and columbine for late bloom- 

 ing varieties of these and other gorgeous early flowers lingered with us 

 until autumn Veronica, the iron plant, snow on the mountain 

 (variegated spurge) ginseng (at eight dollars a pound, a valuable 

 crop) jonquils, lupines, pyrethrum, tarragon, turtle-head, rock cress, 

 vetch, wood sorrel, pinks, perennial pea, cinquefoil, harebell, Jacob's 

 ladder, knotweed, liverwort, loosestrife, lungwort, leek, mandrake, 

 sneeze-weed, sneezewort, bell flower, primrose, foxglove, mahonia, 

 monkshood, and blue spirea grew in profusion, and hollyhock and 

 larkspur waved triumphantly aloft their banner spikes of bloom. 



"And the jessamine fair, and the sweet tuberose, 

 The sweetest flower for scent that grows, 

 And all rare blossoms from every clime 

 Grow in that garden in perfect prime." 



