132 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



to the ordinary hard- wooded shrub. It will not take long 

 to consider those strictly suited to the garden. Garden 

 phloxes, as distinguished from annual phloxes, furnish 

 a good illustration of such herbaceous plants. Their 

 colors are rich, pure, and varied, and their stems clean 

 and solid-looking, and of moderate growth. The same 

 may be said of lilies, such as lilium auratum, the golden 

 lily, white, spotted with maroon, and showing a mde 

 gold band ; L. candidum, the Madonna lily ; L. longifolium, 

 also a good white kind ; L. harrisii (the Bermuda Easter 

 lily), and the beautiful Japan lily, L. speciosum, both red 

 and white ; besides native field lilies, L. superbum and L. 

 tigrinum. Lilies stand so firm and tall against a stone 

 wall or solid mass of shrubbery, that we do not wonder 

 at the praise the poets have given them. 



Similar praise, except that they are not so tall, may be 

 given the irises, with their beautiful, solid, simple leaves 

 and remarkable flowers. 



Iris koempferii, whose shades of purple, lavender, and 

 blue, marked with bands of straw-color, appearing on 

 flowers formed as curiously as those of any orchid, make 

 it noteworthy in any association of plants, and only a 

 little less distinguished than the German iris, the beauti- 

 ful tints of whose different kinds last during a number of 

 months of the year ; finally, even the make-believe iris, 

 pseudacorus, or yellow flag, shows a clean, firm finish 

 of form that sets off well its yellow flowers, and ren- 

 ders it suited alike to the garden and the shrub border, 

 or the edge of pools of water. 



Single dahlias have a dignity of cai'riage, although 

 spreading and picturesque in form and charming in 

 single flowering effect, that seems to give them a place 

 in the garden. There is a dainty, richly-colored, yellow- 



