INTRODUCTION 5 



the border at Ottawa, and the last date represents the close of the blooming season 

 These dates are not necessarily taken from the same year ; in most cases they are not. 

 The object is to give the range of blooming season. Years, when there was an extra- 

 ordinarily early or late spring or a very long drought which affected the blooming 

 season, were not taken into consideration. 



In order to avoid the use of adjectives to describe the merits of the different 

 plants, asterisks or stars have been used instead. The plants with three asterisks 

 before the name are considered by the author to be the best for cultivation in the 

 perennial border; those with two asterisks, the second best; those with one asterisk, 

 third, and those without an asterisk are either considered not worthy of cultivation 

 or of being of interest to botanists only, or have not been tested long enough to judge 

 of their merits. In addition to these marks of merit, a list of one hundred of the best 

 plants is given at the end of the bulletin, a list of the best fifty, and a list of the best 

 twenty-five. There are also lists of the twelve best varieties of German iris; the 

 twelve best varieties of pseonies, and a list of the twelve best varieties of perennial 

 phlox, Phlox paniculata (decussata). There are so many fine varieties of iris, paeonies 

 and phlox that a list of the best twelve given by one person may not be the same as the 

 list of another, as much depends on individual taste. 



The author desires to acknowledge, and to express his appreciation of, the assist- 

 ance given by Mr. Frank T. Shutt, Chemist, in illustrating this bulletin. All the 

 photographs were taken by Mr. Shutt, and are of plants growing at the Central 

 Experimental Farm. We wish also to acknowledge the services rendered by Mr. Frank 

 Horn, foreman in the botanic garden, who has charge of the perennial border, and 

 who for several years has kept the records of dates of blooming and height of the 

 plants, and has also assisted in compiling the records used in this bulletin. 



