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CHOICE GARDEN FLOWERS 47 



ing of the future. The time will come when 

 all bouquets will be nosegays — that is, bunches 

 of fragrant flowers. If you have inherited a 

 Puritanical strain from your ancestors, please 

 bear in mind that floral fragrance not only 

 gives a sensual pleasure which is highly refined 

 and harmless, but has indeed a decided hygienic 

 value; because it makes us breathe deeply and 

 in sniffs, which is the most effective way to 

 introduce into the lungs an extra amount of 

 health-giving oxygen — about one-third more 

 than we ordinarily take in.^ 



Less intensively fragrant than the lilies, but 

 far more varied in coloring, are the members of 

 the iris family (''rainbow flowers"), which in- 

 cludes, besides the iris proper, the humble 

 crocus, the tigridia (of which some wonderful 

 hybrid specimens are pictured in colors in Bur- 

 bank's tenth volume) , and the glorious gladiolus. 

 If you have room in your garden, and time to 

 keep out the weeds — especially witch grass — ^by 

 all means have some Spanish and German 

 irises. Bigger and more thrillingly beautiful 

 are the Japanese irises, than which nothing 

 more showy exists. These are obligatory. You 



' If you wish to realize fully what that extra amount of oxygen 

 means, read Thomas R. Gaines's volume on Vitalic Breathing 

 (Chicago, The Reilly and Lee Co.). There is no exaggeration in his 

 claim that deep breathing, in sniffs, "arms you against disease; 

 prevents bodily fatigue (in spading and hoeing, for example); oils 

 up your mental machine; insures physical fitness; and arrests pre- 

 mature old age." 



