May, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



Xlll 



already many bright perennials, but in the 

 vegetable garden the color clashes are easier 

 to avoid, and if they can not be entirely pre- 

 vented it will not matter so much there. 



We are asked if it is worth while to collect 

 plants in the woods for use in the wild gar- 

 den. Decidedly it is. Many of the plants 

 found in profusion in the woods are not to 

 be had in the nurseries, and if one can not 

 collect them one must buy from men who 

 make it a business to collect wild plants. It is 

 also, of course, much cheaper to collect them 

 for one's self. 



Spring blooming plants should be trans- 

 planted soon after flowering, because many of 

 them loose their leaves early in the summer 

 and are then very hard to find. 



If you walk constantly in the woods it will 

 not be hard to keep track of things and to 

 collect them when the leaves are turning yel- 

 low, which is the best time. If you wait too 

 long you will look in vain for dog-tooth vio- 

 lets. Carry a basket and a trowel on your 

 walks or drives and dig things as you come 

 across them. Get all the roots of the plants ; 

 place them in the basket between layers of 

 damp moss or leaves, and if you come to a 

 brook dip basket and all in the water for an 

 instant. As soon as you reach home set them 

 out, water, and shade for a few days if nec- 

 essary, and they will seldom die. 



I have often dug up a plant with a pocket- 

 knife or with my fingers and carried it home 

 wrapped in a handkerchief in my pocket with- 

 out harm. 



The trilliums, Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the- 

 pulpit, houstonia (bluets), anemone, blood- 

 root, erythronium, all the violets, moss pink, 

 silene, etc., are very easy to transplant and to 

 establish. 



The lady-slippers are harder to manage. 

 Their roots are long and thick, and they are 

 very particular about soil, which must be 

 peaty and cool. 



Trailing arbutus is almost impossible to 

 transplant, or rather it is impossible to make 

 it grow after transplanting. If one has a 

 large place it will be a temptation to bring 

 home a small hemlock or a pine, just for the 

 sake of such an intimate connection with its 

 life and welfare, and indeed one would like 

 to preserve the memory of all one's walks in 

 such a pleasant, tangible way. 



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 BLMIRA, N. Y. 



THE UTILITY OF THE BUNGALOW 



THERE are quite a number of ways in 

 which a bungalow appeals to the house- 

 keeper by reason of its utility. Its 

 housekeeping excellencies are perhaps best 

 summed up in its general convenience; "as 

 convenient as a flat" is a ready way to explain 

 its housekeeping advantages so it will be best 

 appreciated by the city housekeeper, while 

 those who have never kept house with the 

 rooms all on a single floor will find in it a 

 revelation of convenience and comfort. Every- 

 thing is at one's hands ; there is no going up 

 and down stairs ; there is an ease of access 

 and an ease in housekeeping that appertains 

 to no other style of dwelling. And this con- 

 venience is something that is with one every 

 day and all day, and its very great advantage 

 is the supreme test of the bungalow's utility. 

 Nor is its utility in simplicity to be ignored ; 

 in fact, in some senses this is its chief ad- 

 vantage. The bungalow is a simply built 

 house, intended to be simply furnished, and 

 adapted to the simple life. The latter phrase 

 has, indeed, been greatly overworked of late, 



By Elsie Leonard 



and perhaps does not really mean as much 

 as its promoters would have us think. But 

 one can not think of gorgeousness in a bunga- 

 low nor of the luxurious life as it is now 

 understood and interpreted. Hence its claims 

 for simple living are not to be overlooked nor 

 scorned as hinting at a passing jest. 



The structural simplicity of the bungalow 

 is, however, one of its most notable character- 

 istics. Few modern houses are to-day built 

 without cost ; the bungalow is not always the 

 cheapest form of construction ; but at least it 

 never speaks its modest cost aloud, for it 

 makes no pretense to be other than what it 

 really is — a simple little house, built at as 

 moderate a cost as may be, and used, if you 

 please, and quite naturally, as the abode of 

 persons of simple taste. 



This quality is well shown in the furnish- 

 ings, which, in a bungalow, are naturally much 

 more modest and much more simple than in 

 a dwelling of greater cost. Here one may 

 dispose one's purchases of inexpensive summer 

 furniture without thought of criticism and 



without dread of unfavorable comment. There 

 is a world of comfort in this, for many of us 

 crave at times a quiet little house where there 

 is freedom from the expensive equipment that 

 often belongs to the more costly dwelling, and 

 where sometimes we can not be as comfortable 

 as we would, because we must be so very care- 

 ful of our tables and chairs, our rugs, hang- 

 ings, and other things the careful housekeeper 

 often feels she must have whether absolutely 

 necessary or not. 



The utility of the bungalow is, therefore, a 

 matter of prime importance and of truly high 

 significance. It is a dwelling of a type; not 

 always definitely indicated, perhaps, but still 

 typical and in a general sense universally char- 

 acteristic. It is a form of house that has been 

 so wrought out by our architects that it can 

 be as readily adapted to the luscious climate 

 of California as to the more trying climate of, 

 let me say, Massachusetts. It is true enough 

 we would not, in Massachusetts, or in any 

 northern State, select this as the type of house 

 to be chosen for all the year living; but it is 



