88 NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



But if roses do not always behave in 

 town as you expect them to, there are 

 other flowers that surpass expectation. 

 The fleur-de-lis (flower of Louis the 

 " royal lily " of France, which is not a 

 lily, and belongs to us as much as to Eu- 

 rope) is one of those steady, reliable growths 

 that nobody should be without. We put 

 ours into a clump, and as they have grown 

 they have matted together, so that for a 

 month we have a gorgeous array of white, 

 yellow, blue, and purple flowers, faintly fra- 

 grant and greatly satisfying. Insects do 

 not make too much havoc with them, and 

 they almost never touch the blooms. 



Then there are morning-glories that sow 

 themselves like weeds, and petunias that 

 flower all summer, ditto geraniums, and 

 the sunny nasturtium with its variants of 

 lemon, gold, orange, scarlet, red, and crim- 

 son, the modest yet showy portulaca, and 

 sundry others. But you do not have to buy 

 anything. Raise wild flowers. Every va- 

 cant lot has them, and the suburbs are gay 

 with dozens of species all the way from 

 April to snow-time. I have never been 



