272 
Another charming woods flower that is 
easy to grow in a shaded border is the large- 
flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora). 
This is one of those lily-like flowers with 
zigzag stems and perfoliate leaves which it 
is always such a joy to find in the woods. 
Its lemon-colored drooping bells are some- 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
most precious on rocks or in sand where 
the salt spray may cover it. Unlike the 
linear-leaved shrubs that have cowered 
before the cold ocean winds and reduced 
their evaporating surfaces to mere lines, the 
seaside goldenrod faces the winds with a 
broad, smiling countenance. It is one of 
This is a piece of real wild gardening with the sweet fern (Comptonia asplenifolia) on a Pennsylvania estate. 
The crushed leaves emit a refreshing bayberry-like odor 
times as long as an inch and a half. It 
costs about $1.20 a dozen. 
One of the loveliest flowers at the seashore 
is the seaside goldenrod (Solidago semper- 
virens), Which anyone can recognize in- 
stantly by its beautiful thick, fleshy, shining 
leaves. When growing in pure sand and 
reduced to two feet in height it is a refined 
and even elegant plant. Dr. Britton says 
it attains an extreme height of eight feet. 
I suppose this must be on the salt marshes 
or along the banks of tidal rivers. It is 
the handsomest of the fleshy-leaved wind- 
resisters. 
Another interesting plant that is adapted 
to untoward conditions is the sweet fern 
(Comptonia asplenifolia), which makes fra- 
grant the dry hillsides. I cannot say that 
it is very beautiful, for it is a low, straggling 
shrub without conspicuous flowers or fruit, 
but it is very interesting to see fern-like 
leaves borne upon a woody plant, and these 
leaves when crushed send forth a refreshing 
aroma like that of the bayberry to which 
JUNE, 1908 
it is allied. The picture on this page shows 
a mass of sweet fern in a famous wild garden 
at Haverford, Pa. I enjoyed greatly brush- 
ing through this colony. The gardener 
preferred to let the plants grow in their own 
straggling fashion, showing their woody 
stems at frequent intervals, but I believe 
I should prefer to top some of them occa- 
sionally so as to get compact bushes of 
decorative habit. Left alone they seem to 
me seedy rather than picturesque. 
Many amateurs now grow collections of 
our native asters. It is impractical to get 
such a collection from the wild, because it 
is too hard to determine the species, even 
with the help of Britton and Brown’s 
“Tilustrated Flora,” and besides, considera- 
ble improvement has been made in them 
by horticulturists. For instance, one nur- 
seryman offers over a hundred kinds of 
perennial asters, of which thirty-five are 
named varieties of the New York aster (A. 
Novi-Belgi1). But the finest use for native 
asters, in my opinion, is to fringe roadsides 
and woods on great estates after the manner 
suggested by the picture on page 2. One 
soon tires of them in an ordinary hardy bor- 
der. They are too robust and _ prolific 
for the garden. But country gentlemen 
can beat nature at her own game by lining 
a driveway for half a mile or so with a single 
kind of aster, not a stiff, large-flowered one 
like the New England aster (which also loses 
its lower leaves) but a soft, fluffy one with a re- 
fined color, like some of the pale blue varieties. 
A Wild-flower Bed in a City Yard 
By E. N. Howe tt, Dixon, IIl. 
ee a dozen years ago ] made a 
wild- plant bed along one side of 
my house and about thirty feet long, using 
_ only the plants native to this region. Of 
course the woodsy surroundings which add 
so much to the attractiveness of the flowers 
in their native state were lacking, but the 
plants seem not to take note of this for they 
flourish even better than in the wild. Experi- 
ence has shown that an east exposure is 
best for the kinds of plants grown (the hot 
afternoon sun is fatal). The soil was a 
stiff clay which had been thrown out of 
the cellar when the house was built. Sand 
and leafmold were forked into the surface. 
Leafmold, which is very necessary to the 
plants, is obtained by filling boxes with 
dead leaves and keeping them moist. They 
rot in two years. This is spread over the 
bed in a very thin layer each fall and the 
bed is then covered with leaves. These 
leaves are never entirely removed but are 
left to rot, just as in the woods. In the 
spring the smallest plants are partially 
uncovered, but the large ones push their 
way through almost any depth of covering. 
Drainage is obtained by a sloping elevation 
of the bed. Water from the eaves and high 
winds are guarded against, for they make 
havoc with the ferns. 
In the Summer one would think at first 
glance it was a bed of ferns only. Lady 
ferns (Asplenium Filix-famina), form the 
main setting, with maiden hair (Adiantum 
