LITTLE GARDENS 



have the flowers, even in our greenhouses, that 

 make the tropics gaudy. We have vegetal 

 beauty and abundance of it; but there is no such 

 wonder of grace, such passion of color, such ex- 

 travagance of perfume as we find, say, in the 

 West Indies, where the tree jasmin loads the air 

 with fragrance, and the flamboyant {poinciana 

 regia) burns like the flaming bush and carpets 

 the roads with red after a wind — a red more 

 gorgeous than that of our October woods. 

 When we do fetch an exotic into our yards, it 

 may survive, but it will never be the same as in 

 its native soil. So let us content ourselves with 

 what shall grow with ease and certainty. If we 

 can not have the jasmin we can cultivate the tube- 

 rose, which is as sweet; if not the flamboyant, 

 we can have the croton, galax and poinsettia in 

 our borders, and the sunflower, dahlia and chrys- 

 anthemum in our beds. And in buying plants 

 you have before you two methods and a com- 

 promise. The first method is to fill your garden 

 with hardy plants that come up year after year 

 with little or no urging or attention. The second 

 is to have a change of contents every year by 

 setting out potted plants — annuals — that you 

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