Front Dooryards 47 



mented by tints of salmon, vermilion, and rose. 

 I recall with special pleasure the profuse garden 

 decoration at East Hampton, Long Island, of a 

 pure cherry-colored Phlox, generally a doubtful 

 color to me, but there so associated with the white 

 blooms of various other plants, and backed by a 

 high hedge covered solidly with blossoming Honey- 

 suckle, that it was wonderfully successful. 



To other members of the Phlox family, all 

 natives of our own continent, the old front yard 

 owed much; the Moss Pink sometimes crowded 

 out both Grass and its companion the Periwinkle ; 

 it is still found in our gardens, and bountifully also 

 in our fields ; either in white or pink, it is one of 

 the satisfactions of spring, and its cheerful little 

 blossom is of wonderful use in many waste places. 

 An old-fashioned bloom, the low-growing Phlox 

 amcena^ with its queerly fuzzy leaves and bright 

 crimson blossoms, was among the most distinctly 

 old-fashioned flowers of the front yard. It was tol- 

 erated rather than cultivated, as was its companion, 

 the Arabis or Rock Cress both crowding, monop- 

 olizing creatures. I remember well how they spread 

 over the beds and up the grass banks in my 

 mother's garden, how sternly they were uprooted, 

 in spite of the pretty name of the Arabis " Snow 

 in Summer." 



Sometimes the front yard path had edgings of 

 sweet single or lightly double white or tinted Pinks, 

 which were not deemed as choice as Box edgings. 

 Frequently large Box plants clipped into simple 

 and natural shapes stood at the side of the door- 



