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, d 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 P<tonia 

 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 ? 



c 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 



