CHAPTER X 



EARLY SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND 



SHRUBS 



one of America's golden opportunities 



IF THERE be one season of the year wherein 

 outdoor flowers are more keenly appreciated than 

 another it is without doubt that of spring. All of 

 us welcome the season when Nature puts on new ap- 

 parel and appears in all the freshness of vigorous 

 youth. And rightly so, for fallen indeed is the state of 

 those in whom the joyousness of spring finds no an- 

 swering echo. Garden lovers in particular greet the 

 springtime with open hands and gladsome hearts, for 

 then appear in beauteous blossom a hundred and one 

 plant treasures Who among us does not welcome 

 that sweetly pretty harbinger of spring the Winter 

 Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) with its small, clear yellow 

 flowers? And with what pleasant thrill we note the 

 first expanding blossoms of the Snowdrop! Posses- 

 sors of gardens differ widely in their tastes and affec- 

 tions for different classes of plants but all agree in the 

 desire for subjects which produce flowers early in the 



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