io8 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



out of a wet, rich mould, but they are not particu- 

 larly averse to either heat or cold, sunlight or 

 shadow. The finest sorts are not very ex- 

 pensive, and all over our dear country are 

 marshy tracts and reedy hollows in which the 

 wild iris shows as lovely a flowering as any 

 Japan ever greets with a holiday. Ferns and 

 tall grasses are the natural complement of the 

 flags, and they are always at their best if they 

 can grow at the foot of a wooded bank, with 

 even the smallest level of clear water close 

 enough to let them look at their own re- 

 flections. 



It is in May that the snowballs hang out 

 their balls of heavy, greenish-white sterile 

 flowers. A rain is sure to scatter them before 

 they have passed their best days, and in the 

 old days when these Guelder roses grew in 

 every garden plot the country people called it 

 the snowball rain. Sometimes they speak of 

 a blackberry rain also, as a storm is apt to 

 come about the time that waysides and wood- 

 edges and old stone walls, and the dear, 

 delightful Virginia rail-fences (which nobody 

 will ever build again, and which coming 

 generations will never see) are overgrown 



