October, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN | 
thing like that. It would be monstrous to 
clip a lilac into a formal hedge. 
For a screen to cut off the unsightly 
backbuildings so necessary in the country, 
the hardy bamboo is unsurpassed. It is a 
beautiful feathery evergreen, growing 
from ten to fifteen feet tall, with canes 
that the boys of the family can use for 
fishing poles'. Were it not for its very 
troublesome habit of sending out long un¬ 
derground runners which come up in un¬ 
expected places, far from the parent stem, 
its use as a hedge could not be too highly 
recommended. However, a day with the 
hoe each April will make that all right. 
Its long green plumes are fine for decorat¬ 
ing either churches or homes, and it grows 
so luxuriantly there is always enough and 
to spare. Yucca filamentosa makes a good 
border for the bamboo, as anything less 
hardy would be choked by the bamboo 
roots, while the deep green of the yucca 
is a beautiful contrast to the light green of 
the other. I do not know how far north 
the bamboo is hardy, but it would be an 
easy matter to ask one’s nurseryman. In 
North Carolina it requires no protection. 
Snow and sleet do not seem to interfere 
with it at all. Once planted it takes care 
of itself. 
Agnus Castas, Holy Lamb, sacred olive, 
or lavender tree, for it has as many names 
as a prince of the blood, makes a conspic¬ 
uously beautiful hedge as well as a fra¬ 
grant one, with its gray-green, lavender- 
scented leaves and its spikes of purple 
bloom. As it is loveliest in August, when 
the summer glory of bloom is on the 
wane, it deserves a welcome that so far 
has been conspicuous by its absence. A 
stately rival, and blooming about the same 
time, is the crape myrtle, both pink and 
white. All grow about twenty feet in 
height, ordinarily, though in unusually 
favorable localities they become trees. 
The black haw or wild thorn is almost as 
fragrant as its celebrated English name¬ 
sake, and far more beautiful, not only de¬ 
fying but actually flourishing in the heat 
of Southern suns, when the English thorn 
either dies outright or lingers in such a 
withered, faded condition that one wishes 
it would die. Farther north it succeeds 
very well. 
If you wish fragrance, pure and sim¬ 
ple, for the flower is an inconspicuous 
greenish white, set out a hedge of “baby’s 
breath.” I do not know any other name 
for it. It is an old-time shrub, six feet 
tall, and blooms about the first of March. 
It remains in bloom a month, and during 
that blissful four weeks its fragrance is 
so sweet, so dainty, so elusive, that one’s 
nose becomes one’s most precious pos¬ 
session, and sniffing the perfumed air one's 
most enjoyable occupation. 
And can any hedge be more satisfac¬ 
tory, either for beauty or fragrance, than 
one of white and purple lilac, alternating? 
It is of slow growth, “seven years from 
root to flower,” they say, but think of 
what the bloom will be when it comes, and 
seven years of waiting will pass as rapid¬ 
ly as did Jacob's. Lilacs are troublesome 
The Importance of 
the Oriental Carpet 
in the Oriental mind is well shown at the annual 
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carpet destined to cover the sacred Kaaba is carried 
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designs and colorings are copied from beautiful 
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Our booklet “Oriental Art in American Rugs' 
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(II f\ to the purchaser. 
M. J.WHITTALL 
Dept. S 
WO R C E STE R'MASS 
ESTABLISH ED 18 8 0. 
A BOOK OF FAMOUS WITS 
" By Walter Jerrold - 
In this volume appear the “sayers of good things" from the times of Johnson, 1 arlton 
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history of the long dynasty of the famous wits. Illustrated. 
$2.50 net, postage 20c. 
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