HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 



IT is a little difficult to describe this class of plants to 

 the ordinary reader, because they are both hardy 

 and, in some cases, moderately long-lived. The 

 leaves are not less beautiful than those of shrubs or 

 trees, and the flowers are celebrated for their high 

 range of quantity and quality; and, in fact, all that 

 makes them at all distinct from shrubs is the peculiar 

 habit they have of dying down every winter, and start- 

 ing up again in the spring. When we turn to the woods, 

 and proceed to gather wild flowers, we should remember 

 that we are really gathering hardy herbaceous plants in 

 most instances, for among them are included nearly all 

 of the most attractive as well as most modest and ex- 

 quisite blooms of the forest and field. In another place 

 we have indicated their proper habitation on the lawn to 

 be — and it will bear repeating — in the foreground of 

 shrub borders, where they serve to round out and 

 carry down the mass of foliage to the ground, and, also, 

 we have found that they live and look well in nooks and 

 corners, outside of the house, and at the foot of stone 

 walls and fences. 



It should not be inferred from anything that has been 

 said here, that hardy herbaceous plants, or perennials, 

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