258 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



ously on house-roofs and pergolas and chicken-cor- 

 rals; while cheek by jowl with it, as likely as not, 

 are orange-yellow bignonias and scarlet tecomas. 

 And then, because red geraniums and yellow Cali- 

 fornia poppies can't help blooming riotously in this 

 glorious sunshine, why let them kill each other by 

 setting them side by side?" 



"Yes, I guess we're guilty," apologized the Pro- 

 fessor, "but what's the wild West without a bit of 

 killing in it? We're young yet; soon enough, we'll 

 settle down to the proprieties meantime, we enjoy 

 color." 



To the average eye, it must be owned, this ten- 

 dency to floral coloratura is a venial matter, and is 

 forgotten in the delight of discovery afforded by the 

 vast variety of exotic shrubs and flowers that are in 

 common outdoor cultivation on the Coast. Of 

 course many people faithfully keep up the traditions 

 of the Eastern home with such old-fashioned favor- 

 ites as lilacs, spiraeas, weigelias, abutilons, nastur- 

 tiums, verbenas, zinnias, marigolds, hollyhocks, and 

 so on ; and everybody of course grows the rose in its 

 manifold varieties that universal flower which has 

 girdled the world as with a garland of love. All 

 gardens have a sprinkling of these; but what gives 

 distinctiveness to the California gardens are the 

 tropic and semi-tropic plants which are unknown in 



