CHAPTER XI 
THE SPECIAL VALUE OF PERENNIALS 
ALL other plants might disappear and the peren- 
nials would give the garden supreme loveliness— 
expressed in hundreds upon hundreds of individual 
forms. No one knows how many kinds are in cul- 
tivation; if any calculation were made it would be 
good for only a day, so rapidly are species emerging 
from the realm of botany to the garden and new 
varieties appearing on the scene. A glance at a 
British list of iris, primula or campanula species 
alone is enough to stagger one. 
The special value of perennials, however, lies 
not more in the marvelous variety of form and 
color that incalculable numerousness affords than in 
the distribution of their blooming season through 
the greater part of the year. Excluding all of 
the bulbs, which it is the trade custom to catalogue 
under a separate head, the herbaceous perennials 
have a range of bloom that has not begun to be 
realized by amateurs—as the meagre representa- 
tion in the average garden, in both spring and 
autumn, demonstrates clearly enough. Without 
any coddling at all, they can be made to furnish 
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