2/6 Home Adornment in the West. 



plish their beautiful mission, before the others wake from their long repose 

 to give hinderance : such are the trilliums, the dentarias, spring-beauties, 

 and the lovely spring-lilies. It is amusing to trace these last in some half- 

 sunny, half-shady interval, down through the rich mould to the little bulb- 

 lets which are double-stemmed ; one coming to the surface with its spotted 

 leaves and lily-bearing scape, the other branching off at a right angle to 

 form another bulb and a new plant. And this is the secret of the rapid 

 spread of these exceedingly pretty patches of mottled leaves and snow- 

 white blossoms, so lush and luxuriant in the April days. It will tax all our 

 skill to reproduce their plentiful bloom in the garden. 



Others are shallow-planted, under leaf mould, but have a thick, annual 

 mulch of leaves ; as the blood-root, bell-worts, twin-leaf, jewel-wort, and 

 wild-ginger. Uncover the last very early in the spring, and you will be 

 startled by what will seem a nest of little snakes, so vermicular and inter- 

 laced is its large mass of singular rootlets, every one of which has a black 

 head and silver-gray throat already swollen to bursting by the vernal forces. 

 These all take kindly to the garden in the shady borders, where a few half- 

 decayed leaves in warm weather, and new-fallen ones in cold, will keep 

 them, as many other of these tender plants, in thriving growth and succes- 

 sive blooming. That little germ, jewel-wort, quaintly called Dutchman's- 

 breeches, is found a little deeper in the rich soil, and its frail little bulblets 

 require nicer care in placing them in the garden ; yet if some of the fine 

 light mould in which they delight is taken with them, they never fail : in 

 fact, they improve by cultivation ; and, though less showy than its stout 

 cousin from China, it is far more delicately beautiful. Indeed, few objects 

 in the garden are more charmingly attractive than a symmetrical clump of 

 this perfection of leaf spray and jewel-blossoms. 



Others, again, are protected by a thin covering of turf, or deeper beneath 

 the interlaced roots of stout grass and herbs, like the lady's-slipper. One 

 might suppose, that, in such positions, they would be smothered or over- 

 mastered ; but they have strong roots, and push strongly and early, and 

 thus have ample time to develop leaf and flower before these others have 

 made much growth. This other rank vegetation, which springs up near 

 midsummer, serves the double purpose of keeping the germs of these most 



