86 CIVIC BIOLOGY 



What exotic is more beautiful than our mountain laurel or 

 our rhodora, or more graceful than our sumacs and elder- 

 berry, or sweeter than our pepper bush and wild rose ? It 

 is no slight matter that a plant has become adjusted to its 

 environment on a large continent through the many centu- 

 ries of its struggle for existence. 



Flowers. With shrubbery now as the background come 

 naturally, in the finest landscape effects, the hardy perennials 



FIG. 41. The most beautiful back door FIG. 42. An ugly back door 

 in Worcester, Massachusetts Compare with Fig. 41 



peonies, lilies, irises, hollyhocks and phloxes, goldenrods 

 and asters, and a host of others; also the annual bedding 

 plants, the cannas and dahlias, sunflowers, marigolds and 

 zinnias, nasturtiums, sweet peas and flowering beans, and by 

 all means, here and there, a few tuberoses and a bed of helio- 

 trope and mignonette. These supply the finishing touches for 

 both color and fragrance, and should be studied largely as a 

 matter of individual preference and taste. Here is the test, 

 however, for harmonious and pleasing effects in color, and, 

 since we must live with our homes so much of the time, the 



