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"O world as God has made it! All is beauty."
                                                  -- ROBERT BROWNING. 

"Knowing a little of the vast world of plant beauty quite shut out of our gardens by the system in vogue, I was led to consider the ways in which it might be introduced; and among various ideas that then occurred to me was the name and scope of the 'wild garden.' I was led to think of the enormous number of beautiful hardy plants from other countries which might be naturalised, with a very slight amount of trouble in many situations in our gardens and woods -- a world of delightful plant beauty that we might in this way make happy around us, in places now weedy, or hall bare, or useless. ...There has been some misunderstanding as to the term 'wild garden.' It is applied essentially to the placing of perfectly hardy exotic plants in places and under conditions where they will become established and take care of themselves."

-- W. ROBINSON.

CHAPTER VI

THE WILD GARDEN

TO THE purist it may seem an impertinence to transplant the flora of other lands to any of those parterres of nature's garden we are pleased to call "ours" when so many of our native wild flowers offer delightful possibilities as yet little realised by American gardeners. But let him remember that the commonest wild flowers we have, for example, the daisy that now whitens the fields throughout the United States and Canada, was unknown on this continent until it smuggled its passage across the Atlantic in the hay used for packing the early Colonists' china. Very many other so-called weeds-the exquisite Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot, the dusty white yarrow, the buttercup that spangles our meadows, and "succory to match the sky" -- to name only a few among many -- are merely naturalised foreigners, not natives, that thrive far better here, however, than they did at home, just as the Irish and Italian immigrants do. When nature does not fix sectional limitations, why should we?

Along the roadsides leading to old homesteads, we commonly find the European tansy's shining yellow "bitter buttons" suggestive of the time when tansy tea was supposed to cure most of the ills that flesh is heir to. Bouncing Bet, another European, ran away long ago from the New England women who used to make a cleansing, healing lather from the leaves of this soapwort; and now the white or pinkish blossoms swell the small list of "our" fragrant wild flowers. Tawny orange lilies, that once had their passage paid across the ocean, have escaped from their keepers through many fences and are now on a triumphal march to freedom. So are the small, speckled red blackberry lilies that originally came from China. Escaping from gardens here and there, they have already attained the respectable range from Connecticut to Georgia westward to Indiana and Missouri. How many beautiful flowers, commonly grown in our gardens here, but which, of course, are the wild flowers of other lands, might become naturalised Americans were we only generous enough to lift a few plants, scatter a few seeds over our fences into the fields and roadsides-to raise the bars of their prison, as it were, and set them free! Most of them are doomed to stay forever in prim, rigidly cultivated, cell-like flower beds. Some, like the blue corn flower, are waiting only until a chance to bolt for freedom presents itself, and away they go. Lucky are they if every flower they produce is not plucked before a single seed can be set. Each plant has some device for travelling, however slowly, or for sending its offspring away from home to found new colonies, if man would but let it alone. Better still, give the eager traveller a lift!

Not alone is the prophet without honour in his own country. A century before the lovely mountain laurel was appreciated here, Peter Kalm had sent specimens to Europe, where it immediately became a garden favourite. Even to this day numbers of nursery kalmia plants, as well as our native Rhododendron maximum and Catawbiense and their hybrids, the best azaleas evolved from our bare-stemmed Pinxter flower, the pure pink. A. Vaseyi, the deliciously fragrant white azalea of our swamps, and the gorgeous flame-coloured azalea from the Carolina mountains, return to us by way of Europe. What comfortable little fortunes that might easily have been earned by Americans, now stand to the credit of the Dutch, Belgian and English growers of these plants alone! "American gardens," with these splendid representatives of the heath family as a basis, have been features of not a few fine English estates for many years. It gives the American traveller food for reflection to see not only American rhododendrons, laurel and azaleas, but New England asters and other members of that starry tribe, the tall Canadian goldenrod, the burnt orange umbels of butterfly weed, wood and field lilies, rose mallow from New Jersey tidewater meadows, fleecy spired clethra, flowering dogwoods and viburnums, trilliums, bloodroot and meadow rue, and even our despised velvety mullein .among many other cherished plants from home, blooming contentedly on the ancestral soil of a British peer.


OUR NATIVE BLOODROOT DELIGHTS IN HAVING ITS ROOTS IN A COOL, ROCKY CREVICE.

Strange as it may seem, quantities of our wild flowers, including the shy little orchids, are exported annually by American specialists, who rarely receive an order, however, without a foreign postage stamp on the envelope. As a rule, even we few Americans who delight in wild gardening have not learned to buy plants from nurserymen who grow them from seed, rather than despoil the woods and roadsides about our homes. Impulsively we dig up plants, whenever or wherever we find them, usually when they are in bloom, often when no place has been prepared to receive their dry roots and fainting forms, and yet we feel discouraged when they die. Who can resist the pure white blossoms of the bloodroot, the speckled yellow bell of the little trout lily or adder's tongue, and the lavender blue hepaticas? The temptation to dig up the plants at once rather than in August when they are resting, too often proves irresistible. Few of us have the patience to drive marked stakes beside the flowering plants that we may wish to lift, and return, perhaps months afterward, to transplant them during their dormant season, and then only when we have holes and soil prepared to receive them, water and mulch at hand, canvas or paper to hold a generous ball of soil around each root, and a waggon to rush them to their new home. Not many people study a plant's natural habitat and attempt to give it a similar one in their wild garden. We learn only by sad experience that the great white trilliums which were so beautiful in the rich, moist woods die on a dry upland where barberries, butterfly weed and black-eyed Susans would feel more at home; that to expose the fine, fibrous roots of laurel, rhododendrons or azaleas to the sun and wind, or plant them in an unprotected situation, is even more fatal to them than to the dogwood; that the arbutus rarely lives after transplanting, no matter how carefully it may have been moved, and that wild roses, not vigorously pruned before they are lifted in early spring, generally refuse to put out a leaf. It is usually wiser, and certainly far less trouble, perhaps even less costly, to buy wild plants trained for travelling by a reliable grower, who will ship them properly packed at the right season and answer all our cultural questions, than to risk failure and heartbreak through experimenting. But oh! what fun one misses!

Your true gardener is not to be cheated out of those excursions to the woods and meadows that are his chief joy. He, as well as the nurseryman, learns by observation, study or inquiry what are the fixed requirements of his favourite plants, and these he spares no pains to meet. If ferns are his hobby, he will soon find a moist, shady corner, sheltered from the wind, for the maiden hair, rocks for evergreen spleenworts and polypodies, a northern slope for a variety of shield ferns, a home among rhododendrons for the royal fern and the fragrant, finely cut fronds of Dicksonia.


SHEETS OF BLUE FORGET-ME-NOTS OVERSPREAD THE BANKS OF A
WILD GARDEN NEAR WATER, WHERE THEY ARE AT HOME.

If other rock-loving plants delight him, he will place pockets of rich, light loam between the crevices of boulders and lesser stones to nourish happy colonies of columbine, bloodroot, true and false Solomon's seals, Pinxter flower, hawkweed, shooting star, Virginia cowslip, blue bells, daphne, violets, St. John's wort, wild geranium, and blue phlox among the foreign saxifrages, rockcresses and other Alpine plants, without which was a rock garden ever complete?

Only the enthusiast with a deeper pocket than any among his rocks can buy rhododendrons by the freight-car load, though the poor nature lover may know as well as he their delightful possibilities when lavishly planted. Grown in bold masses, under trees along an entrance drive or beside a brook or on the bank of a small lake, their beauty is majestic. Laurel may be grouped in the foreground at their feet, tall auratum, superbum and Canada lilies may shoot upward from their midst, or their heavy dark foliage may serve as a background in damp situations for the incomparable red of the cardinal flower or the stately form of Japanese irises. With leaves as decorative as a rubber plant's and blossoms that form a bouquet complete in itself, the rhododendron, either in the wild garden or in the formal garden, reigns supreme among evergreen plants.

But this is not said to discourage the use of many other native shrubs of varied loveliness. What a wealth of beauty exists in the viburnum tribe alone -- in the high bush cranberry and arrow wood whose broad white panicles are only less attractive than their bright fruit! How impoverished should we be without the dogwoods, without the shad bush, the Judas tree, the sumachs, the glossy leaved, blue-berried mahonia, and the bright red-berried holly! The fragrant button ball, the creamy cups of sweet bay (Magnolia glauca), the white azalea that fills the air with a spicy fragrance as delicious as the clethra's, the black alder whose dark twigs, stuck with red berries, make a cheerful punctuation point in the autumn landscape, the elder, whose flat white blossoms come with the wild roses, the shrubby cinquefoil, the fuzzy pink steeple bush, the meadowsweet and the ninebark, equally attractive in flower and in fruit, will not be missing from the wild garden planted in moist ground.

Indeed, a low lying piece of land affords more possibilities of establishing colonies of plants that may be trusted to take almost entire care of themselves than any other site. Here the monarda, bee balm or Indian plume as it is variously called, will spread rapidly and invite humming birds to feast every midsummer day at the brimming wells of nectar in the ragged red tubes that are stuck irregularly around its globes. Here, in late summer, the vivid cardinal flower will continue their feast. Rose mallows that look like single pink hollyhocks, tall, feathery, meadow rue, superbum lilies, moccasin flowers, showy lady's slippers, the white fringed orchid and other orchids, trilliums, spring beauty, turtle head, and the blue fringed gentians, which may now, after long experimenting, be grown from seed, are only a few of the many native wild flowers that are happy where there is no possibility of dying out. In such a place the Virgin's bower clematis will hang fleecy festoons over the shrubbery and race with the bittersweet and wild grape up the trees. Tufts of English primroses and marsh marigolds and sheets of blue forget-me-nots delight to spread along the banks of a brook where serried ranks of blue and yellow irises and the pure white blossomed arrowhead stand with their feet in the water. It was Thoreau who called a swamp "Nature's sanctuary." Not until one enters it with an eye alert for treasures for the wild garden does one realise how many lovely ones have their being where the human eye almost never sees them; yet most of them can be grown successfully in much drier places within easy access of one's home. The rose mallow from the swamps, for example, thrives in a flower garden under the same treatment given a hollyhock. Now that the cardinal flower is commonly offered in seedsmen's catalogues it has found its way into many flower beds, where, however brilliant the blossoms, its ill fitting environment robs it of half its charm.


WAXY WHITE INDIAN PIPES AND CREEPING DALIBARDA IN A
MAN-MADE CORNER OF NATURE'S GARDEN.

It surprises most people to see how much a little cultivation improves many of our wild flowers. When their fierce struggle for existence may be relaxed, when every want is anticipated and the plants may devote their entire energy to developing all their latent loveliness, how fast it reveals itself! The blue wheels of succory double their size; the boneset, another cosmopolitan weed, spreads broader panicles of soft leaden white bloom than is its wont; its next of kin, the Joe Pye weed, rears fleecy flowers of dull Persian pink high above one's head; the evening primrose becomes a branching bush, asters multiply their stars, and the goldenrod, in well fertilised, cultivated soil, astonishes all beholders by the prodigal richness of its gold.

Not the least claim for the wild garden is that it may be had when the flower lover can afford no other. The rich man may send abroad for foreign plants to naturalise in the wild parts of his estate, or he may buy a freight-train load of native mountain laurel, as more than one American enthusiast has done, but nature knows no partiality. The poorest teacher in a rural school, without a penny at her disposal, may take all her boys and girls from their desks to nature's nursery in the woods and fields and bring home in a borrowed farm waggon treasures enough to beautify the bare, unlovely school grounds whose care might well become one of the children's most important lessons. The bald ugliness of many a village schoolhouse, the hard lines of too many farmers' homes and the poorest people's cabins, the barren waste of most country graveyards, might all be mercifully adorned without money and without price if the possibilities of free flora were understood by indifferent, because unintelligent, people. The use of wild trees, shrubs and flowering plants does not necessarily mean a wild garden, but it does mean a far more beautiful, artistic, and economical kind of gardening than any that the masses of our people can afford. It is the garden for the million as well as the millionaire.


OUR NATIVE SHOWY LADY'S SLIPPER IN MOIST ALLUVIAL SOIL. THE MARVELLOUS
MECHANISM OF THIS BEAUTIFUL ORCHID, WHICH SO DELIGHTED DARWIN, MAKES
IT DOUBLY VALUABLE IN THE WILD GARDEN.
 

NATIVE PLANTS FOR THE WILD GARDEN

[See also, LAUREL, RHODODENDRON, CLETHRA, and other desirable native shrubs.] 

Plants marked thus (*) are suitable for situations surrounding the water garden.

Note. -- The following season given is that for the neighbourhood of New York and varies earlier or later to the South or North.

 

ADDER'S TONGUE. See DOG'S TOOTH VIOLET.

ADAM'S NEEDLE, SPANISH BAYONET (Yucca filamentosa). See HERBACEOUS PLANTS. The best desert evergreen plant and for subtropical effects.

*AMERICAN SENNA (Cassia Marylandica). Yellow. July, August; 2 to 5 feet. Best yellow flower for clumps in moist, open situations and swamps.

ASTER (Various species). Blue, mauve to white. August till frost; 6 inches to 4 feet. Daisy-like flowers of various sizes in loose panicles. Open meadows and woodland borders. These are the very best late flowers. *---, NEW ENGLAND (Aster Novae-Anglica). Violet and purple; 3 to 8 feet. Moist ground. Much improved in cultivation. ---, NEW YORK (A. Novi-Belgii ). Pale blue; 2 to 3 feet. Wet, open banks. ---, SMOOTH (A. laevis). Sky blue. September, October; 2 to 4 feet. For dry soils and dry woodlands. Easiest way to naturalise is by scattering seeds.

*BANEBERRY, WHITE (Actaea alba). ---, RED. (A. rubra). April, June; 1 to 2 feet. Rich soil in shade. Undergrowth. Most effective for the respective white and red berries that follow the flowers. Fruiting pedicles of the white baneberry are often red.

BAYBERRY (Myrica cerifera). For description see WAX MYRTLE in SHRUBS. Naturalise along seashore and on sandy knolls.

BEARD TONGUE. See PENTSTEMON.

BEE BALM (Monarda didyma). See HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

BLACK-EYED SUSAN (Rudbeckia hirta). Yellow with black centre. May, September. 1 to 3 feet. Dry and open ground anywhere. Naturalised freely in fields. The most showy daisy-like flower of summer.

*BLACK SNAKEROOT, BLACK COHOSH (Cimicifuga racemosa). White in elongated spikes. June, August; 4 to 6 feet. Moist, shady corners, woods, pond edges.

BLAZING STAR (Liatris pycnostachya). Purple. July, August. 4 to 5 feet. Light, well-drained soil. Long grass-like foliage, with flower heads

in long spikes. (L. scariosa). 2 to 4 feet. Flowers August, September; bluish purple.

BLOODROOT. See TUBEROUS PLANTS.

BLUEBELL. See HAREBELL.

BLUE COHOSH (Caulophyllum thalictroides). Flowers greenish purple. April, May. 1 to 2 ½ feet. Well-drained, shady, and dark corners. Moist hillsides. Fruits burst, exposing large blue, glaucous seeds. Foliage glaucous when young.

BLUETS, INNOCENCE (Houstonia caerulea). Pale blue, with yellow eye. May. 2 to 4 inches. Dainty little 4-petalled flower growing in tufts for open, moist or grassy places. Brightest dwarf flower of spring.

*BOLTONIA, FALSE CHAMOMILE (Boltonia latisquama). Lilac. August to October; 2 to 6 feet. For bold, wild effects. Moist soil in sunny place. B. asteroides has white, pink or purplish flowers. July, September.

*BONESET (Eupatorium perfoliatum). White, rarely blue. July, September; 2 to 5 feet. Wet places. Easily naturalised almost anywhere.

BUTTERFLY WEED, PLEURISY ROOT (Asclepias tuberosa). Orange, rarely yellow. Heads flat. June, September; 1 to 2 feet. Open sun, well-drained soil. Easiest plant of its colour to naturalise in fields.

*CARDINAL FLOWER (Lobelia cardinalis). Brilliant carmine. July, August; 2 ½ feet. The brightest flower of its kind. Often grown in the border, but is somewhat ragged. Best in shady places along banks of streams. Scatter seeds freely.

CELANDINE POPPY (Stylophorum diphyllum). Yellow or red. May, June. 1 to 2 feet. For a rich, loose soil, but with preference for partial shade. Plant has yellow juice. Leaves dark green, flowers quite showy.

CINQUEFOIL (Potentilla fruticosa). Bright yellow. All summer; 6 inches to 4 feet. Small flowers like single roses, one inch across. Prefers moist, rich soil, but thrives on dry, and even on rocks. Very useful for its long season of bloom, but may become a weed on favoured soil.

CLINTONIA (Clintonia borealis). Green, margined yellow in threes. May, June; followed by blue berries in autumn above the dark-green leaves; 1 to 2 feet. Cool, moist woods. Other species almost the same.

COLUMBINE (Aquilegia Canadensis). Red and yellow. May, June; 8 to 20 inches. Excellent for rocky slopes. (See also HERBACEOUS PLANTS.)

*CRANE'S BILL (Geranium maculatum). Light pinkish purple in several shades. April to August; 2 feet. In open sunshine, meadows, and in woods. A very common wild plant with flat flowers an inch and a half across.

DOG'S TOOTH VIOLET, ADDER'S TONGUE, TROUT LILY (Erythronium Americanum). Yellow. April to May; 10 inches. Flowers with the violet, and often found growing with it. Solitary nodding lily-like yellow flowers an inch long. Leaves marbled with brown and silvery gray. Plant 6 inches deep, in any light soil with partial shade. Several marked variations.

DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES (Dicentra cucullaria). Greenish white, tinged with pink. April; 8 inches. Delicate-looking plant, with finely divided leaves. Moist soil in partial shade. One of the first flowers of spring.

DWARF CORNEL (Cornus Canadensis). White. May to July; 6 inches. Large white bracts, followed by bright red berries in fall. Herbaceous. For shaded woods, as undergrowth, along driveways, etc.


A GRASSY PATH ON EITHER SIDE OF WHICH COLONIES OF WILD FLOWERS BLOOM FROM FROST TO FROST.

FALSE MITREWORT (Tiarella cordifolia). White. May; 6 to 12 inches. Foamy masses of small flowers borne above the tuft of foliage. Cool soil and full or half shade. In effect the dwarf counterpart of the plume poppy.

*FORGET-ME-NOT (Myasotis palustris). Along streams. See HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

GENTIAN, CLOSED (Gentiana Andrewsi). Blue, occasionally white. August to October; 1 to 2 feet. Flowers in a compact terminal cluster, large and usually quite closed. A strong-growing plant for rich, moist soil in partial shade. Excellent along banks of streams. ---, FRINGED (G. crinita). Violet. September, October; 1 to 3 feet. Flower-tube about two inches long, with flat, expanded lobes, prettily fringed. A biennial, and in some places the seed is killed by frost. Sow fresh seed in moist woods and meadows; or in cultivation on a seed bed of sphagnum moss as first described in The Garden Magazine for December, 1905. Makes a tiny rosette the first year.  ---, NARROW-LEAVED (G. linearis). Blue. August, September; 6 inches to 2 feet. Similar to the closed gentian, but tipped with white. Profuse flowering. Perfectly hardy. Moist places in open sun and in bogs. The easiest gentian to naturalise.

*GOLDENROD (Species of Solidago). Plumose, yellow. The most characteristic yellow-flowered plants of late summer and fall. ---, WOOD-LAND (S. caesia). August, September; 1 to 3 feet. For moist shade. ---, FIELD (S. nemoralis). July to November. 1 to 2 feet. Best low grower for dry, open places. ---, CANADA (S. Canadensis). August to November. 2 to 8 feet. Best tall kind for open places.

GOLD THREAD (Coptis triflora). White with yellow base. May to July; 6 inches. For carpeting moist, shady soils and on clay. Evergreen, shiny leaves.

*GRASS PINK (Calopogon pulchellus). Purplish pink. June, July; 1 foot. Grass-like leaves in spring. Swamps and peat bogs, also sandy soil if moist. One of the brightest native orchids with 6 to 12 flowers to a stalk.

HAREBELL, BLUEBELL (Campanula rotundifolia). Blue, rarely white. May to July; 6 inches. Dark, shaded places, but open; also rocky crevices, and full sun in high altitudes only.

*INDIAN TURNIP, JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT (Arisaema triphyllum). Greenish spathe, striped purple with a horizontal flap, followed by red berries. April to June; 1 ½ feet. Low, moist, rich woodlands. Leaves from early spring till autumn, in shady, moist places.

*IRIS, BLUE FLAG (Iris versicolor). Blue and white. May to July; 20 inches. Wet places and along brooksides. More slender growing, flowering in May and June, is I. prismatica or I. Virginica. At home along the East Coast.

*IRONWEED (Vernonia Noveboracensis). Purple. July to September; 3 to 5 feet. Flowers in large terminal clusters, very showy. Best effect in masses near water, making good supplement to the purple loosestrife, which is earlier. Also for open places.

*JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT. See INDIAN TURNIP.

JAMESTOWN WEED, THORN APPLE (Datura Stramonium). White. June to September; 2 to 5 feet. Any soil. Naturalised from tropics. An annual that has become a weed in the South. Use only in very wildest places.

*JOE-PYE WEED (Eupatorium purpureum). Purple to flesh colour, to almost white. August to September; 8 tog feet. The boldest, tall, rank growing plant for low grounds. Easily naturalised. Foliage coarse. Var. maculatum is lower, with purple-brown markings on stem.

LADY'S SLIPPER, MOCCASIN FLOWER (Cypripedium acaule). Rose-purple. May to June; 1 foot. Two leaves. Well-drained soil with leaf-mould. ---, SHOWY (C. spectabile). Pink-purple to pink. June; 2 feet. Several leaves. The easiest native orchid to grow and the showiest. Bogs or moist, partly shaded bed of peat or leaf-mould. Get large clumps, as of all orchids. ---, YELLOW (C. pubescens). Yellow brown. May, June; 1 foot. Well-drained bed of leaf-mould and peat in moist shade. C. pauciflorum is smaller, but easier to grow in similar soil. Leave undisturbed.

*LILY, RED, CANADA AND TURK'S CAP. See BULBOUS PLANTS.

LIVERWORT (Hepatica triloba). Blue, purple, pink. Earliest spring; 6 to 8 inches. Best and earliest flowering plant for massing in shady corners or open woods. In protected places flowers in the snow. Holds leather-like, three-lobed old leaves all winter and until after flowering.

*LOOSESTRIFE, PURPLE (Lythrum Salicaria). Bright purple. June to August; 2 to 8 feet. Best bright-coloured flowers for late summer, for swamps, and wet meadows. Flowers in lax terminal spikes.

LUPIN (Lupinus perennis). Blue, pink, or white. May, June. 1 to 2 feet. Dry, sandy soils and banks. Pea-like flowers in loose racemes.


FERNS AND WOODS ASTERS IN A SHADY PLACE.

*MALLOW, SWAMP ROSE (Hibiscus Moscheutos). Rose or white. August, September; 3 to 7 feet. For swamps and brackish marshes. Large, expanded flower, four inches across, sometimes with crimson eye. Best large, rose-coloured flower for wet places.

MAY APPLE (Podophyllum peltatum). White. May; 1 ½ feet. Large, nodding flowers under bold seven and nine lobed leaves, almost round and peltate. Creeping root-stocks. Excellent for early spring effects in moist woodlands.

*MEADOW RUE, TALL (Thalictrum aquilegifolium). White. July to September; 4 to 5 feet. Moist soils in open or along brooks. Light, feathery balls of flowers and gracefully cut fern-like foliage. Good for cutting too. T. dioicum, 1 to 2 feet. Purplish flowers in April, May. Woods.

*MEADOW SWEET (Ulmaria pentapetala). Creamy white. June, July; 2 to 4 feet. One of the best free-growing plants for moderately moist soils. Showy terminal corymbs, borne on erect stems, naturalised in the East. One variety has leaves variegated with yellow. Also a double form.

*MILKWEED, SWAMP (Asclepias incarnata). Rose-purple in flat heads, rarely white. July to September; 1 to 2 feet. Swamps, where grasses fail, and along streams. Most showy, flat-headed plant for late summer in such situations. ---, COMMON (A. Cornuti). Dull, grayish pink. Earlier; much less showy; but grows on drier soils.

MILKWORT, FRINGED (Polygala paucifolia). Rose. May, June; 6 inches. For edges of moist, rich woods, in open places. Pretty purplish foliage and large-fringed flowers. Plant in clumps.

OX-EYE DAISY (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum). White with yellow centre. May to November; 1 to 3 feet. The common daisy of the fields, and invaluable for meadow effects. Parent of Shasta daisy.

PARTRIDGE BERRY (Mitchella repens). Evergreen creeping vine. Dark green, with scarlet berries lasting all the winter. Woods.

*PENTSTEMON (Pentstemon laevigatus, var. Digitalis). White. May to July; 4 to 5 feet. Any well-drained soil in open places. Easily naturalised, and sometimes becomes a weed in meadows. Tubular flowers in lax panicles. (For GARDEN PENTSTEMON, See HERBACEOUS PLANTS.)

PHLOX, WILD BLUE (Phlox divaricata). Gray-blue. April to June; 1 ½ feet. Along edges of moist woods. Valuable for its colour at its season. Short pyramids of flowers, faintly fragrant.

*PICKEREL WEED (Pontederia cordata). Blue. June to October; 2 to 4 feet. Wet and swampy lands. Flowers in dense spikes borne above the foliage. Best strong-growing plant on stream and pond borders.

PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia vulgaris). See HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

*QUEEN OF THE PRAIRIE (Ulmaria rubra). Pink. June, July; 2 to 8 feet. Large panicles, slightly fragrant. Moist grounds and open meadows. Excellent for wild effects on large areas.

RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN (Goodyera pubescens). White. August; 1 foot. Leaves mottled with white. Flowers in a terminal spike. Easiest woods orchid to naturalise in ordinary loam, mixed with pine needles and twigs. Native in damp woods.

ROSE, PRAIRIE (Rosa setigera). Pink flowers, fading whitish. June, July; 6 feet or more. Best climber. For shrubby effects on dry ground R. lucida, 6 feet, with red stems and fruits showy all winter. On moist ground, R. Carolina,* 8 feet.

*SKUNK CABBAGE (Symplocarpus faetidus). Bright, yellow green, bold foliage in earliest spring; 1 foot. Moist dells. Very effective.

SNAKEROOT. See WHITE SNAKEROOT.

*SNEEZEWEED (Helenium autumnale). Bright yellow. August to October; 1 to 2 feet. Best large yellow, daisy-like flower for summer and fall. For swamps and wet meadows. Will also grow in open border. Var. superbum, 4 feet, with flowers 3 inches across.

*SOLOMON'S SEAL (Polygonatum biflorum). White flowers in arching sprays, with the leaves. June; 1 foot. Black berries in fall. Moist shade or rich soil in the open. ---, FALSE (Smilacina racemosa). White. 1 to 2 feet. Flowers in terminal, foam-like sprays. Moist shade, preferably well drained.

*SPEEDWELL, GREAT VIRGINIAN (Veronica Virginica). Pale blue or white. August, September; 6 feet. For rich soils fully exposed to the sun. Very free growing. The best tall blue flower of late summer for full sun.

*SPIDERWORT (Tradescantia Virginica). Blue. Moist, rich places in shade or sun. (See HERBACEOUS PLANTS.)

SPRING BEAUTY (Claytonia Virginica). Obscure pink flowers in summer. Spreading plant 8 inches high, with long, tapering leaves of bright green. Moist soils in rocky bottoms, and especially in moist leaf-mould in woods.

SUN DROPS (OEnothera fruticosa). Yellow. June to August; 1 to 3 feet. Dry, exposed soil and sand. Common in New England meadows. A small, dense, bush-like shrub, covered with inch-wide flowers. Sometimes a weed.

*SUNFLOWER (Helianthus Maximilianus). Yellow. August till after frost; 8 to 10 feet. Most desirable sunflower for naturalising because of its great height and extremely late season. Individual flowers are small. Grows anywhere not a swamp.

SWEET FERN (Comptonia adiantifolia). Dwarf, shrubby plant, with dark, green foliage; 2 feet. Best plant for naturalising on sandy knolls for foliage effect. Deciduous.

TANSY (Tanacetum vulgare). Yellow; 2 ½ feet. Flat heads of small composite flowers. Common along roadsides, mostly escaped from gardens. One of the old-time simples. The flower head 4 to 6 inches across. July, September.

TRAILING ARBUTUS (Epigaea repens). Pale rose. May. Creeper. A very difficult plant to naturalise, insisting on perfect drainage in a dry, sandy, loamy soil, in shade. On planting protect with an inch of light litter or leaves, to remain for a whole season. Do not attempt this plant unless you have the exact conditions.

TRILLIUM. See WOOD-LILY.

*VIOLET (Viola cucullata). Violet blue or purple in shades. April to June; 6 inches. Damp places, mostly shaded, but often does well in semi-open woods, etc. Best of all the native violets, with largest flowers, and very easy to naturalise by transplanting. Root tuberous.

*VIRGINIA COWSLIP (Mertensia Virginica). Blue. May, June; 1 to 2 feet. Moist soils in partial shade. Flowers nodding.

WAKEROBIN. See WOOD-LILY.

WHITE SNAKEROOT (Eupatorium ageratoides). White. July to November; 3 feet. Profusely flowering in loose heads over very long season. Rich woods.

WILD GINGER, CANADA SNAKEROOT (Asarum Canadense). Curious brownish-purple flowers an inch or more across. April, May; 10 inches. Large kidney-shaped leaves. Flowers borne close to the ground. Rich, shaded woods, or with ferns. Leaves appear very early.

WILD INDIGO (Baptisia tinctoria). Yellow. June to September; 1 to 2 feet. Dry soils in sun or shade. Invaluable for naturalising on the coast. Flowers pea-like.

*WILD SWEET WILLIAM (Phlox maculata). White or purple. June to August; 3 feet. For moist woods or along streams and in open sun. Flowers in compact pyramids. (See also ROCK GARDEN.)

*WILLOW HERB (Epilobium angustifolium). Rose-purple. July to August; 3 to 5 feet. For rich upland or well-drained soil in open sun. Flowers loosely borne in a lax spike at end of shoots, which also branch. One of the best plants for bold effects, spreading freely.

WINDFLOWER (Anemone nemorosa). White, tinged purple. April to June; 2 to 4 inches. Partial shade. Excellent for carpeting and woodland borders, and in the grass. Solitary flowers 1 inch across, like small single roses. -- (A. Pennsylvanica.) White; 12 to 18 inches.

WINTERGREEN (Gaultheria procumbens). White, followed by bright red berries. Tune to September; 2 to 6 inches. A low-growing evergreen, with bright green leaves. For woods. Berries last till next season. Difficult to naturalise. Treat like trailing arbutus.

WOOD-LILY, WAKEROBIN (Trillium grandiflorum). White. May; 8 inches to 1 ½ feet. For woods and shaded stream borders. The flower is two inches across, carried above 3-partite leaf on single stalk. Very easy to naturalise. Tuberous. The best early white flower for woods. Plant in masses. T. erectum has dark purple flowers.

*YARROW (Achillea Millefolium). White. Summer; 2 feet. Flat heads of very small composite flowers on erect stalk arising from tuft of very finely cut feathery leaves. Pungent odor. For open meadows and all sunny places. Var. roseum has pink flowers. Most showy plant for meadows.

YELLOW-FRINGED ORCHIS (Habenaria ciliaris). Indian yellow. August, September; 2 feet. Pyramids of fringed flowers. Bogs or moist meadows. Very easy to accommodate.


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