128 THE GOLD MINE 



is wet, some of the seeds, as they fall, may grow, and 

 thus extend the area. The seeds have great vitality. 

 Some sow them in the fall. Columbines are used a 

 good deal for cut flowers, though they are not as good 

 keej)ers as Paeonies. They are in season on the nation's 

 great flower day, when we decorate the graves of our 

 dead. Some late springs they are about the only out- 

 door flower we can use, as was the case in 1904, when 

 they were in the full glory of their bloom in great 

 mass'es. 



So plant Columbines. There should be a flower 

 procession from the opening of the Tulips to the hard 

 frosts of autumn, and these should have a prominent 

 place. The more .you have of them the more you will 

 admire them, and when you get well acquainted with 

 them you could not get along without them. 



DELPHINIUMS. 



In our search for hardy perennials we have found 

 this among the most showy and beautiful. If you 

 travel in the Rockies you will meet these flowers in all 

 their glory. In the rich valleys you often see them 

 six or seven feet high, and the tall, strong stem lined 

 with a covering of flowers of deepest blue. 



This flower, sometimes called the Larkspur, has been 

 much improved. In the Boston flower shows I have 

 seen gorgeous sj^ecimens of grand, radiant flowers which 

 seemed at gi-eat remove from our native plants. These 

 tall ones are clothed with the splendor of sapphire, and 

 so intense is the color it would seem as though all the 



