nches farther and wider, and there will be more of them, and its
flowers will be larger and finer each season, if the soil is kept rich.
I know of old clumps that have a spread of six feet or more, sending up
hundreds of stalks from matted roots that have not been disturbed for no
one knows how long, on which blossoms can be counted by the hundreds
every spring.

Dicentra, better known as "Bleeding Heart," because of its pendulous,
heart-shaped flowers, is a most lovely early bloomer. It is an excellent
plant for the front row of the border. It sends up a great number of
flowering stalks, two and three feet in length, all curving gracefully
outward from the crown of the plant. These bear beautiful
foliage--indeed, the plant would be well worth growing for this
alone--and each stalk is terminated with a raceme of pink and white
blossoms. It is difficult to imagine anything lovelier or more graceful
than this plant, when in full bloom.

The Aquilegia ought to be given a place in all collections. It comes in
blue, white, yellow, and red. Some varieties are single, others double,
and all beautiful. This is one of our early bloomers. It should be grown
in clumps, near the front row.

[Illustration: A BIT OF THE BORDER OF PERENNIAL PLANTS]

The Iris is to the garden what the Orchid is to the greenhouse. Its
colors are of the richest--blue, purple, violet, yellow, white, and
gray. It blooms in great profusion, for weeks during the early part of
summer. It is a magnificent flower. It will be found most effective when
grouped, but it can be scattered about the border in such a way as to
produce charming results if one is careful to plant it among plants
whose flowers harmonize with the different varieties in color.
Color-harmony is as important in the hardy border as in any other part
of the garden, and no plant should be put out until you are sure of the
effect it will produce upon other plants in its immediate neighborhood.
Find the proper place for it before you give it a permanent location.
The term, "proper place," has as much reference to color as to size. A
plant that introduces color-discord is as much out of place as is the
plant whose size makes it a candidate for a position in the rear when it
is given a place in the immediate foreground.

Pyrethrum _uliginosum_ is a wonderfully free bloomer, growing to a
height of three or four feet, therefore well adapted to the middle rows
of the border. It blooms during the l