APPENDIX 237 



In the native woods every brook has its fringe of 

 flowering plants. There children gather the crowfoot 

 buttercup, blue and white violets, forget-me-nots, and 

 fragile flowers which will form a pretty border and be- 

 come domesticated in the cultivated grounds where the 

 brook is the flow from a water pipe or an irrigating ditch 

 instead of a natural stream. A dwarf iris and a spirea, 

 one of five acceptable varieties, is to be depended upon, 

 as well as the ever reliable marsh marigolds, hemerocallis, 

 "flowering fern" or Osmunda regalis, Senecio japonica 

 which has handsome deep yellow flowers, and the Inula 

 helenium of the sunflower family. 



For shaded nooks near the water there are still more 

 members of the widespread iris family, and few places 

 are better adapted for the growing of primroses, popu- 

 larly known as primulas and cowslips. The Mertensia 

 or Virginian cowslip, with its blue bells, and the culti- 

 vated dodecatheon or shooting stars, prefer moist shade. 

 In such places, too, the wild-flower gatherer will plant 

 the trillium grandiflorum, the lobelia cardinalis or 

 cardinal flower, the wild geranium, and the perennial 

 wind-flowers. 



The finer species of ferns seek the waterside. A per- 

 manent fern bed, to accomplish anything of a luxuriant 

 nature, must have the native ferns of adjacent groves for 

 its mainstay. The adiantum or maidenhair is more hardy 

 than it appears, provided it has shade and moisture. The 



