Front Dooryards 43 



eases, no running out, no funguses ; it doesn't have 

 to be covered in winter, and it will bloom in the 

 shade. No old-time or modern garden is to me 

 fully furnished without Peonies ; see how fair they 

 are in this Salem garden. I would grow them in 

 some corner of the garden for their splendid healthy 

 foliage if they hadn't a blossom. The Paonia 

 tenuifolia in particular has exquisite feathery foliage. 

 The great Tree Peony, which came from China, 

 grows eight feet or more in height, and is a triumph 

 of the flower world ; but it was not known to the 

 oldest front yards. Some of the Tree Peonies have 

 finely displayed leafage of a curious and very grati- 

 fying tint of green. Miss Jekyll, with her usual 

 felicity, compares its blue cast with pinkish shad- 

 ing to the vari-colored metal alloys of the Japanese 

 bronze workers — a striking comparison. The 

 single Peonies of recent years are of great beauty, 

 and will soon be esteemed here as in China. 



Not the least of the Peony's charms is its 

 exceeding trimness and cleanliness. The plants 

 always look like a well-dressed, well-shod, well- 

 gloved girl of birth, breeding, and of equal good 

 taste and good health ; a girl who can swim, and 

 skate, and ride, and play golf. Every inch has a 

 well-set, neat, cared-for look which the shape and 

 growth of the plant keeps from seeming artificial or 

 finicky. See the white Peony on page 44 ; is it not 

 a seemly, comely thing, as well as a beautiful one ? 



No flower can be set in our garden of more dis- 

 tinct antiquity than the Peony; the Greeks be- 

 lieved it to be of divine origin. A green arbor 



