The Sedums were made for the gardener. Knowing their colors and the height each attains in a season's growth, he may lay out a perfect garden at the start, never needing afterward to approach it with shears or knife. I have frequently thought that the plants of this genus were especially suited for growth in the near neighborhood of houses of the Queen Anne type. The dull colors or grays of the one would nicely blend with the equally dull colors of the other. Many species should be used, and they should not be formally grouped, but brought together picturesquely.

With persons recognized as possessing good taste, I think the tendency is toward toned-down flowers and flowering plants, as well as toward non-irritating house exteriors. If bright colors are to be used in the future garden, their sharp effects will be neutralized, or smothered, in a mass of abutting grayness or greenness.

Nature is seldom loud. When it is, it is so universally so that it is not to be distinguished from stillness, for it removes all contrasting things. Snow may be called loud, but when it falls upon the earth, and the things that cover the earth, all antagonisms are drowned to view. Green might be called loud - it is certainly strong - but its high tone is lost in its presence everywhere.

Rochester, N. Y.