LITTLE GARDENS 



the pitcher of new-cut thyrses that adorned the 

 table when the minister took tea with the family, 

 or when lunch was set out for the matrons and 

 spinsters of the sewing-circle. He recalls the 

 groups of lilacs in the school-yard, and those that 

 cast a shadow at the gate of that sacred place of 

 shadows : the village cemetery. And so remem- 

 bering, he plants a lilac before his city home, or 

 has it in his yard. We see more of lilacs in town 

 than of any other shrub, yet we see not half 

 enough of them. Over a score of varieties are 

 offered by the nurserymen — white, purple-rose, 

 red with a faint blue cast, full purple and purple- 

 violet. This shrub will stand neglect, but that 

 is no reason why it should have it. What is 

 worth room on one's premises is worth affection- 

 ate care. Like other plants, the lilac asks a drink 

 in thirsty weather, it needs occasional pruning, 

 and is none the worse for an annual loosening of 

 the soil about its roots. 



Useful in backgrounds is the weigelia, or 

 diervilla, a bush of loosely spreading habit, but 

 shapely, and bearing trumpets of ruddy purple, 

 pink, red and white. This shrub is said to come 

 from Japan, where it grows from three to six 

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