GARDEN FLO WERS. 



183 



PLANTAIN LILY. 

 (funkia ovata.) 



racemes or clusters and are white and very fragrant. The 

 leaves of these plantain lilies are large and showy, egg- 

 shaped, and slightly heart-shaped 

 at the base, and the flower stems 

 rise about eighteen inches high. 

 Gypsophila paniciduta comes from 

 the Caucasus and grows about three 

 feet high in a mass, as broad as tall, 

 of thread-like stems bearing abun- 

 dant small white flowers. It is a 

 very graceful and delicate plant, 

 blooming from midsummer to early 

 autumn. 



The little Helenimn Hoopesii is a neat Western plant 

 twelve to fifteen inches high, that beai's large orange-yellow 

 flowers, which continue blooming a long time in summer. 

 HemeroGcdlis fiava, day lily, is a beautiful plant that 

 beai's sweet-scented lemon-yellow flowers on stems two and 

 a half feet high. It blooms in midsummer. 



One of the finest old garden flowers is the hollyhock 

 with cup- or rosette-shaped flowers studded along stems 

 six or eight feet high. The colors vary from white to red, 

 dark purple, and bright yellow. The double varieties are 

 much prized, but I confess to a special liking for the old 

 single cup- or wineglass-shaped kinds. There are some 

 shades of these old kinds that are also very attractive, ruby- 

 or wine-colored and pure white. The growth of a re- 

 newed regard for the simple and often lovely old forms of 

 single flowering plants is a promising sign in horticulture. 

 Heresy though it may seem to suggest it, I am sometimes 



