THE FIFTY BEST HARDY PERENNIALS 



EVERY one likes to make anthologies, for no one 

 is satisfied with the anthologies of others; and 

 in making them there is a pleasure both of inclusion 

 and exclusion. There are some things unjustly ig- 

 nored by other anthologists, and others unduly prized 

 by them. There is no lover of poetry that would not 

 like to work some changes upon the Golden Treasury; 

 but it is far easier to make a figurative anthology of 

 poems than a real one of flowers. In the first place, 

 you can produce your poems to justify your choice; 

 but you can only produce the names of your flowers, 

 and those who do not know them must take your 

 judgment on trust. In the next, there are no garden 

 varieties of poems. There is no Lycidas grandiflorus 

 to oust the original and no Dropmore version of the 

 Ode to the West Wind. No one dares to touch up 

 a poem except the author of it. When he is dead the 

 type of the poem is fixed. But with flowers it is other- 

 wise. If, making an anthology of them, you speak of 

 the Rose, you are asked at once. What Rose? And 

 what can you answer ? How can one be chosen among 

 so many with such different merits and defects ? It is 

 the same with Irises and Lilies and Larkspurs and 

 Pseonies. It is impossible to satisfy even yourself 



with any one choice among them. And yet it is amus- 



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