GENERAL DISCUSSION ON FLOWERS. 67 



hyacinths with their fastidious requirements have repaid tender 

 care by fragrance and beauty of color and form T\ath symmetrical 

 mien. Winter aconite {Eranthis), Pasque-flower {Anetnone 

 Pulsatilla), and ox-eye (Adonis) have already passed their 

 flowering period and are preparing for a summer's rest. 



May arrives anxious to outdo her predecessor. She flashes 

 most gorgeous Chinese and Japanese magnolias into a wondrous 

 wealth of bloom, and permeates the air with the fragrance and 

 rare beauty of the sadly overlooked Norway maple. Larches 

 combine brilliant coloring of rather inconspicuous flowers with 

 softest green unfolding foliage. Plums and cherries in great 

 variety tinge the landscape with their inflorescence. Flowering 

 crabs bend beneath their burden of bloom in delicate shadings of 

 crimson, pink, and white. Sheltered snowdrop trees (Jlohro- 

 dendron or Ilalesia) repay this care in their marvelous way, and 

 toward the end of the month thorns in great variety bv their 

 prolific abundance of showy white, subtly fragrant flowers give 

 promise of their showy autumn crops of fi'uits. 



Shrubs make a wonderful show in confusing variety ; spiraeas, 

 pearl bush (Exoc/iorda), Jew's mallows {Kerria)^ Carolina all- 

 spice or calycanthus, golden currants {Bibes), bush honeysuckle 

 (Lonicera), in great variety, rose acacias {Bobinia hispida), 

 Himalayan cotoneasters, pink and white flowered, bladder nut 

 {Staphylea), Persian lilacs, and Japanese chestnuts {Xanthoce- 

 ras) are vying with the gorgeous hued hybrid azaleas to detract 

 attention from the wildings; but the mayflower (Epigea rejyens)^ 

 Pinxter flower {Azalea nudiflora), and Rhodora hold their own 

 for quiet harmonious beauty, and one cannot choose between the 

 rivals. 



Bulbs are in their heyday of beauty; tulips in all their galore 

 of marvelous coloring; the weird Fritillarias startling in their 

 variety of habit and play of color; the white lipped grape hya- 

 cinths ; the stars of Bethlehems and dog-tooth violets; narcissus, 

 squills, and wake-robins ( Trillium) are still with us. 



Of herbs silvery yarrow {Achillea argentea\ windflowers 

 {Anemone)^ columbines (Aquilegia), thrifts {Anneria), daisies 

 of England {Bellis), Cerastiums, shooting stars (Dodecatheon), 

 mandrakes {Podophyllum), Solomon's seal {Poh/gonatmn) , 



