6 
ce 
strength of growth, When fire heat is being 
used more atmospheric moisture is needed and 
can safely be given by frequent sprinkling of the 
pathways and under the benches of the house, 
But, us soon as firing is continued the atmos- 
phere of the house naturally becomes charged 
with moisture, and it is then necessary to keep 
air on both night and day to prevent conden- 
sation, When condensed moisture settles on the 
fronds it is sure to cause damping, especially to 
the younger and more tender ones, and when 
damaged by damp in their earlier stages they 
never develop their true character, 
In conclusion I would like to say afew words 
in favor of the more general use of hardy ferns 
for beautifying the surroundings of the home. 
These adapt themselves to filling the corners 
where few others would thrive, and we have a 
great many beautiful native varieties besides a 
number of foreign sorts that are quite hardy in 
this latitude. They will grow and thrive in any 
shady corner as long as they are not under the 
dense shade and drip of trees. Many a 
corner that is now an eye-sore could be made 
beautiful by erection of arockery and judicious 
use of-hardy ferns, The expense would be a 
small item, as stones are not hard to procure and 
the rougher they are thrown together the better 
they will look. 
The Ideal Country Home for the 
Man of Modest Income. 
No. If 
Tux walks might be of soil and leaves, pine 
needles or tan bark, and as a grass edging would 
be stiff, and wasteful of room as well, carpets of 
moneywort—Lysimachia nummularia—willform 
a delightful, irregular margin, and when in 
bloom is covered with its yellow flowers. By 
sinking an old hogshead in one corner and 
making occasional use of the hose, we have the 
ground work of a water garden where nymph- 
veas may bloom amid Iris, myosotis, mallow and 
aythrum, with a backing of the water-side ceph- 
Hanthus, clethra and arunno. 
From the wild garden, by an entrance arched 
with clematis and wistaria, we pass into the 
Hower garden occupying therear portion of the 
lot. Here all is formal. A neat hedge of privet 
eneloses it, and the space within is laid out in 
straight walks and rectangular beds filled with 
flowers: Here the old fashioned hollyhocks, 
digitalis, delphiniums, tiger lillies, iris,, roses, 
peonies and phloxesreign supreme, as they have 
for centuries in such gardens before us. The 
new and improved foims of each Jet us have, by - 
all means, especially in the phloxes, where the 
strides both in purity of tone and size of flower 
are amazing. Jet us also have roses in abun- 
dance—hybrid perpetuals, hardy teas and hy- 
brid ramblers the latter best grown with some 
support. Harrison’s Yellow is an especial favor- 
ite of all rose lovers. The spaces left we can 
fill with such plants as the poppies of many 
sorts, Perennial and annual. I often wonder 
why more people do non grow the latter. The 
Shirley {poppies are charming, but are cast in 
the shade by the splendour of the great double 
farms of poppies soldas the Mikabe, thn Ameri- 
can flag, and fother high sounding, but in this 
case justifiable titles. For blues, we will have 
Baptisia ‘australis, distressingly short - lived 
though its lilac flo wers be: Iris germanica and 
sibirica, the latter the most decorative of irises 
when well grown, ‘though Iris Keenpferi’s flow- 
ers excel in size and depth of coloring; Cam- 
_ panulas grandiflora, rotundifolia and _persicifolia 
Aquilegia ooerulea, Veronica longifolia subsess- 
ilis, hardy asters and Stokesia cyanea. In piuks - 
and whites are the Dyanthus group, D. arenar- 
jas, barbatus and deltoides, Lychnis yiscaria fl. 
pl. {Pyrethrnm hybridum and uliginosum Ach- 
illea ptaimica the pearl, liatris and Sedum spec- 
tible. For yellow there is anabundace to 
wen, . 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
choose from in the composite family alone, be- 
ginning with the early flowering Doronicum 
excelsum and the coreopsis, and ranging through 
Rudbeckias hirta. : 
Arbors and trellises against the house will 
give space for growing wistarias, climbing roses, 
actinidias, and other vines; and if there be a 
board fence along the back of the lot, it may be 
made beautiful with clematis in many sorts, the 
rambling yellow Jasmnum nudiflorum, one of 
the Spring’s pioneers, briar rosei, annual cobiea 
and the grand old passion flower, Passiflora 
coerulea. 
But let us pass through to the fourth or north 
side of the house, which, if the building be well 
located, will be but a narrow strip of land, 
twenty-five or thirty feet wide. Through it the 
walk to the kitchen door should run, the space 
being least valuable here. That leaves room 
enough still for two shady borders in which to 
plant shade-loving shrubs, flowers and ferns. 
Of bushes there are the native Symphoricarpus 
vulgaris and racemosus, of value chiefly for their 
pink and white berries. The latter, S. race 
mosus, was the wax berry of colonial days, For 
brightness of flower there is nothing to equal 
the azalea, which will do nicely in such location, 
and Azalea nudiflora, the common wild pink 
azalea of our woods, is as charming as any. 
In the foreground would be the low-growing 
forms, the lovely pink A. Vaseyi, just the shade 
of the old Daybreak carnation, the darker Azalea 
nudiflora and the large-flowered Ghent and 
mollis hybrids, shades of orange and yellow, 
chiefly. Behind them the taller A. arborescens 
viscosum and calendulacea, the latter the flame 
azalea of the Southern moun- REET Bos 
tains. Space, too, there is for 
the pretty lavender Rhodora 
densis, a close kin, botani- 
cally, to the azalea. For ever, 
green plants to associate with 
them, there are our native 
Rhododendron maximum 
and catawbiense, cheaply ob- 
tained, and both very beau- 
tiful. So, too, of the native 
Kalmia latifolia (laurel), one 
of the most beautiful of all 
broad-leaved evergreens, un- 
excelled by the classic laures- 
tinus itself. For variety, a 
few plants of the dearer hy- 
brids are worth trying if your 
purse can afford it, though 
they are thankless fellows, 
apt to repay your greatest 
pains by succumbing to the 
first cold Winter, More satis- 
factory are the Andromedas 
japonica and floribunda, es 
pecially the former, which is 
far too seldom grown, Leu- 
cothoe Catesbaei, a low- 
spreading bush, with leath- 
ery leayes and ‘racemes of 
white flowers, is charming, 
and easily handled, as is also 
Ilex crenata, the Japanese 
holly. Conifers we do not 
need, as the space is insufti- 
cient for their proper deye- 
lopment, and they succumb 
so often to the dust and soot 
of the suburbs. 
Such a half acreis by no 
means an impossible dream, 
nor is there fear that it would 
look cramped and crowded, = 
for we have but carried the 
diyision of the house into — 
rooms out into the garden. 
Tt need not cost a fortune in 
DrcemBer 15, 190 
making, if the owner will yo systematically 
about it, and use his opportunities. The soil,. 
of course, must be well prepared by deep dig- 
ging, and be well enriched. Many hours must: 
be spent in gathering and establishing the plants, . 
whether they be bought in nurseries or collected 
i the woods and fields. But, after all, many a 
man spends almost as much money on a useless: 
stone wall along his property front,a wall too: 
low to screen either from within or without. 
And will it not be worth while? Not a moment 
of the year will be without its interest in such a 
garden home, from the first breaking of Spring, 
when the bulbocodium is pushing up its green 
nose, watching for a warm day to open its pink 
flowers, with their odd, strap like petals. Every 
day there is some new arrival to greet you.. 
The yellow crocus will follow in haste to profit. 
by the opening of the season, and not long after- 
the white and lovely violet-colored form named. 
after Sir Walter Scott. Meanwhile, by the pool, 
our old friend, the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus. 
foetidus), a sort of stout, matronly old party, as 
it were, who arises betimes, has been up for 
some time, and no doubt may be in full bloom 
already, though thisis a matter of interest 
more particularly to the symplocarpus itself, as 
the blossom is quite hidden in the purple-green 
sheath, Then comes a long array of tender 
little things, bulbous for the most part, headed 
by the cold blue squill and its companions, the- 
warmer colored Chionodoxas luciliae and gi- 
gantea, the glories of the snow of our fathers. 
Then the shrubby things in the door. 
yerd begin to be heard from, spirae1, cydonia, 
peemibinreae Ts 
. = PORTUGUESE LAUUEL—Laurus:zLusitanicus ; 
This magnificent tree shows in full bloom, with long racemes 
of flowers, snowy white, 6 to 8 inches in length, is probably 
the oldest and finest of its kind inthe country. Usually grown 3 
_ * as ashrub, the sub‘ect of this illustration is some 26 feetin — 
% height, planted at the residence of the -late}Judge*Gwynne,, 
seat Aldgate, South Australia. ~ = 
(a, : 
