** Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower. 

 The periwinkle trailed its wreaths; 

 And 'tis my faith that every flower 

 Enjoys the air it breathes." 



— Wordsworth. 



CHAPTER XIII 



Flowers of All Climes and Seasons 



IT is, I know, a reversal of the order which the 

 garden beginner's enthusiasm takes to wait 

 until everything else has been disposed of before 

 coming even to the consideration of flowers. 

 But if I have succeeded at all in developing 

 through these pages the garden idea, as I con- 

 ceive it, you will appreciate by this time that 

 the garden is the thing, and that all that goes 

 to make up the garden is secondary — even the 

 trees and shrubs and flowers. Of course there 

 would be no garden without vegetation; but 

 our custom has always been to work from the 

 vegetation backward — a practice which never 

 can give the harmoniously balanced and beau- 

 tiful final result that the more logical method of 

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