HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 133 



crimson flower of medium growth, the gaillardia, that has 

 a form and color that suits it well to the garden. The 

 erect forms and rich color of the gladioli also give their 

 splendid flowers a right to take their place in the flower 

 garden. 



Of the lower-growing types, suited to formal places 

 where they stand alone, as far as a background of trees 

 and shrubs go, we find the brilliant, yellow, free, all 

 summer blooming coreopsis lanceolata ; and larger sized 

 dielytra or dicentra spectabilis; and the sweet-william, 

 dianthus barbatus, with flowers of various hues, red, 

 white, etc., excepting blue and yellow, growing on solid 

 stems a foot high, in flat terminal clusters ; and the lovely 

 carpet- forming, creeping, phlox subulata, with its broad 

 patches, in spring, of minute red and white flowers. 



A whole paragraph would not seem too much for the 

 proper discussion of the merits of the narcissus family, 

 the daintiest, perhaps, of all plants that belong dis- 

 tinctly to the garden. Narcissi, or daffodils, have long, 

 narrow, simple, interesting leaves that keep erect and 

 effective, and, above all, bear in a dignified way of 

 their own yellow or white flowers half an inch across. 

 Lovely sulphur and yellow colors specially characterize 

 them, and the shape of the flower is curious and beau- 

 tiful in every way, and quite difficult to describe. The 

 poet's narcissus, the most beautiful of narcissi, snow- 

 white at the base of the flower, with a crown of saffron 

 yellow bordered with scarlet, belongs to the same sec- 

 tion of plants. The best daffodils are N. pseudo-nar- 

 cissus, the Lenten lily, with solitary flowers of a bright 

 sulphur ; N. bicolor, pale yellow, and N. princeps, white, 

 and N. incomparabilis, with a larger flower and a shorter 

 crown, two and a half inches wide, with a paler base. 



