THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
317 
view. In place of building a pergola or shelter over this, 
it is often a good plan to use temporary accessories to 
secure color, such as plants in tubs, bright awnings, gar- 
den seats, and many other features may be suggested. 
The number, color and general scale of these will de- 
pend upon the size of the garden, and the needs of the 
problem and the needs and taste of the client. A small 
garden that is to be used as a general decorative feature 
to be enjoyed from the rooms of the house during the 
most of the time, and then for occasional garden parties, 
will serve two purposes by this sort of arrangement. In 
ordinary garden planting we must depend for color upon 
the leaves and flowers. Fruit and twigs or autumn color 
dc not count as masses, unless we use some evergreen 
materials as a background. In large informal plantings 
we can often depend upon the fruit and twig colors for 
short seasons, because we can use large quantities of the 
plants and have our groups used for this special color art, 
more as accents, or to be lost in the whole mass of plant- 
ing during the season. 
Horticultural material as to its use for securing color 
in the garden is grouped into two main groups : con- 
structive and decorative. The use of plant material to 
bring out the constructive lines of the design is the most 
important of all uses of plants in garden design. The 
color here has to do almost entirely with the leaf color. 
The effect here may be bright or sombre. In the plant 
materials of the English garden, the use of variegated 
or unusual leaf colors is justified by the lack of sunshine. 
In the Italian garden planting, the use of leaf color of a 
lower value is justified because of the large amount of 
sunshine, and secures a more pleasing effect in the whole 
design. The problem, then, of the basic color plants in 
garden design, is one that should be solved by the condi- 
tions under which we are working, and not by theories 
as to native material, or material of certain characteris- 
tics. Philadelphus coronarius aurea has a place in our 
plant list that under certain conditions might be more 
important to a successful design than the type plant, 
because it was not natural. 
Plant material classified as to its durative value, listed 
in the order of its importance is as follows : trees, shrubs 
and vines, perennials, annuals, bedding and greenhouse 
plants. The plants can be grouped under two divisions 
as regards their permanence, first the temporary deco- 
rative material, greenhouse (exotic) annuals, and second 
the more permanent materials, perennials, shrubs and 
vines, and trees. The use of these plants in our design 
will depend entirely upon the amount of color we want. 
It can be said that the more color we want, the more 
valuable are the temporary plants as to the place they 
will have in our color scheme. After we have provided 
for a good constructive use of our more permanent 
plants, these temporary plants are very important. The 
fault of using highly decorative plants without a proper 
background is one of the most serious ones of the present 
day garden designers. 
In using herbaceous plants, it is very difficult to plan 
for a good color design and use a variety of color. The 
short time that a perennial is of value for its flowers and 
the attempt to provide for a succession of bloom, com- 
plicate the problem. Many garden designers feel that 
they have solved the problem if they succeed in selecting 
plants so as to secure a succession of bloom. ( )thers pay 
attention to color only. The color schemes should first be 
worked out and enough filler material provided to bring 
out the garden scheme and the plants having more special 
flower characteristics. The selection of two colors for a 
special garden, as a blue and yellow or an orange and 
blue garden will not always be the best. It is a much 
better plan to use colors to secure accent, interest, dis- 
tance, and other features. The size of the garden, and 
the season that it is to be most used, will determine the 
number and amount of color plants that will secure the 
best results. 
The growing of vines on frames is a good method of 
securing a particular leaf color that will keep in charac- 
ter with the design. These frames may be wire or lat- 
tice. The wire frames must be entirely covered, while 
the lattice ones are often decorative in themselves, both 
in design and color. One of the best vines to use for 
wood lattices is the clematis. The many flowering varie- 
ties of this plant give a good list from which to select 
and a succession of blooms may be secured by selecting 
those of the different groups as to time of bloom. — Ralph 
Rodney Root in Bill erica. 
I 
THE SUNDIAL IN THE GARDEN. 
"Serene he stands among the flowers, 
And only marks life's sunny hours, 
For him dark days do not exist — 
The brazen-faced old optimist." 
N this strenuous age it is idle to hope for the return 
of those halcyon days of leisure enjoyed by our fore- 
fathers, when hunger sounded the dinner bell and 
drowsiness rang the curfew — days of which the sundial 
is a mute memorial. As Charles Lamb, in his inimi- 
table way, wrote: "It was the measure appropriate 
for sweet plants and flowers to spring by ; for the birds 
to apportion their warblings by; for flocks to pasture 
and be led to fold by. The shepherd carved it out 
quaintly in the sun, and. turning philosopher by the 
very occupation, provided it with mottoes more touch- 
ing than tombstones." 
At the present time there is a welcome revival of in- 
terest in the sundial, and it is being largely utilized in 
the scheme of decoration in many a garden, or, occa- 
sionally, leaded into the windows of the homestead. 
Many of the newer dials are being constructed after 
the style of the older examples, which speaks volumes 
for the artistic taste of the workmen of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries. 
There is nothing more depressing than to see a sun- 
dial shrouded in the fog and smoke of a large city, 
with scarcely a gleam of sunshine to cast a shade upon 
the "figured plain." Under such circumstances the 
words of Richard Jefferies are very appropriate: "Let 
the shadow advance upon the dial. I can watch it 
with equanimity while it is there to be watched. It 
is only when the shadow is not there, when the clouds 
of winter cover it, that the dial is terrible." 
The mottoes to be found upon the dials are very in- 
teresting. _ As a rule they are quaintly beautiful, occa- 
sionally dictatorial, but always to the point. A sun- 
dial motto should be as short as a poesv on a ring, as 
clear as the sun that shines on the dial's face. 'The 
following are typical examples: 
" 1 count time ! — dost thou ?" 
"Light and shadow by turns but always love." 
"(dmelight! Visit me!" 
"Begone about your business." 
"I count the bright hours only." 
"Haste! oh haste! thou sluggard, haste 
The present is already past." 
Sundials are the only instruments which give us the 
correct time, and clocks and watches are but make- 
shifts which an Act of Parliament can alter and realter 
as its authors think fit.— Henry Walker, in The Garden 
(English). 
