FLORICULTURE 479 



20. Matrimony vine (Lycium barbarum L.), 2. 



21. Clematis ligusticifolia Nutt., 2. 



22. Moonseed (Menispermum Canadense L.), 2. 



23. Silk vine (Periploca grceca L.), 2. 



24. Solanum jasminoides Paxt., 2. 



25. Ipomoea, 2. 



26. Jessamine, 2. 



27. Chili jessamine, 2. (N. J. E. S. B. 144.) 



Flowers. The main planting of any place should be of trees 

 and shrubs. Flowers should be used as decorations. They may be 

 thrown in freely about the borders of the place, not in beds in the 

 center of the lawn. They show off better when seen against a back- 

 ground: this background may be foliage, a building, a rock, or a 

 fence. 



Where to plant flowers is really more important than what to 

 plant. In front of bushes, in the corner by the steps, against the 

 foundation of the residence or outhouse, along a fence or a walk, 

 these are places for flowers. A single petunia plant against a back- 

 ground of foliage is worth a dozen similar plants in the center of 

 the lawn. Too many flowers make a place over-gaudy. Too much 

 paint may spoil the effect of a good building. The decoration of a 

 yard, as of a house, should be dainty. 



The open-centered yard may be a picture: the promiscuously 

 planted yard may be a nursery or a forest. A little color scattered in 

 here and there puts the finish to the picture. A dash of color gives 

 spirit and character to the brook or pond, to the ledge of rocks, to the 

 old stump, or to the pile of rubbish. 



A flower garden. A person may want a flower garden. It is not 

 primarily a question of decoration of the yard but of growing flowers 

 for flowers' sake. It is not the furnishing of a house, but the collect- 

 ing of interesting and beautiful furniture. The flower garden, there- 

 fore, should be at one side of the residence or at the rear ; for it is not 

 allowable to spoil a good lawn even with flowers. The size of the 

 garden and the things to be grown in it must be determined by the 

 likes of the person and the amount of time and land at his disposal ; 

 but a good small garden is much more satisfactory than a poor large 

 garden. Prepare the land thoroughly, fertilize it, resolve to take care 

 of it, select the kind of plants you like ; then go ahead. 



Plants for screens. Many annual plants make effective screens, 

 and covers for unsighly places. Wild cucumber (or echinocystis ) , 

 cobea, and sweet peas may be used to decorate the tennis screen or 

 the chicken-yard fence. The alley fence, the smoke-house, the 

 children's play-house, may be screened with morning glories, flower- 

 ing beans, and other twiners and climbers. The windows may be 

 screened and decorated by vines grown either in the ground or in 

 window-boxes. 



Efficient screens can be made of many strong-growing and large- 

 leaved plants, of which castor beans, sunflowers, cannas, tobacco and 

 other nicotianas, striped or Japanese corn, are the chief. 



