240 Old Time Gardens 



Such folk could scarce find content in an Ameri- 

 can garden ; for our American gardeners must con- 

 fess, with Shakespeare's clown : " I am no great 

 Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have not much skill in grass." 

 Our lawns are not old enough. 



A charming greenery of old English gardens was 

 the bowling-green. We once had them in our colo- 

 nies, as the name of a street in our greatest city now 

 proves ; and I deem them a garden fashion well-to- 

 be-revived. 



The laws of color preference differ with the size 

 of expanses. Our broad fields often have pleasing 

 expanses of leafage other than green, and flowers 

 that are as all-pervading as foliage. Many flowers 

 of the field have their day, when each seems to be 

 queen, a short day, but its rights none dispute. 

 Snow of Daisies, yellow of Dandelions, gold of But- 

 tercups, purple pinkness of Clover, Innocence, Blue- 

 eyed Grass, Milkweed, none reign more absolutely 

 in every inch of the fields than that poverty stricken 

 creature, the Sorrel. William Morris warns us that 

 " flowers in masses are mighty strong color," and must 

 be used with much caution in a garden. But there 

 need be no fear of massed color in a field, as being 

 ever gaudy or cloying. An approach to the beauty 

 and satisfaction of nature's plentiful field may be 

 artificially obtained as an adjunct to the garden in a 

 flower-close sown or set with a solid expanse of 

 bloom of some native or widely adopted plant. I 

 have seen a flower-close of Daisies, another of But- 

 tercups, one of Larkspur, one of Coreopsis. A 

 new field tint, and a splendid one, has been given to 



