CHOICE OF FLOWERS 



because it shrinks from sight among its own 

 leaves. The violet thrives best In the green- 

 house, and those amazing violets of California, 

 hawked through the land some years ago, guar- 

 anteed to rival the giant pansy in size and ex- 

 ceed it In perfume, paid smaller dividends to 

 the confiding than some of the oil-wells in the 

 same State that were advertised with increasing 

 strenuosity the farther the promoter escaped 

 from the base of operations. The pansy should 

 be massed, its various colors by themselves, and 

 it ranges through white, pale blue, lavender, 

 yellow, orange and purple, its lowest note being 

 a rich and velvety shade of the latter that casual 

 observers speak of as black, albeit there is no 

 black in flowers. It may be a fancy of mine, 

 but It has seemed to me that the deeper the color 

 In pansles, the deeper the odor. While it does 

 not object to partial shade, an afternoon eclipse 

 of the sun by a tree or building. It also stands 

 the light, and If the flowers are picked often and 

 straggling stems cut back, It will utter flowers 

 the whole summer long. It often sows Itself, 

 and I know a bed of It that weathers tempera- 

 tures of 30° below zero, but It Is believed to do 

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