Personality of plants

ART IN THE PLANT WORLD
We are not all artists or interior decorators,
and yet we can all make use of the artistic pos-
sibilities present and inherent in our plant
friends. We can cultivate and further the use
of plants and flowers in and about our homes.
Europe is far ahead of us in this respect. In
England, a city house may be ever so frowsy
and run-down but it will be sure to have its
well-kept window boxes. The suburban homes
of labourers and other lowly folk are often veri-
table bowers of loveliness. The German must
have a garden in which to drink his beer. If
there is none handy, he builds one, and cool and
delightful he makes it. In many European
cities, all the houses come out to the building
line and even arch the sidewalks. Not a bit of
greensward is in sight. Yet shrubs, flowers and
vines spring from every sill and balcony and
so make the streets to blossom as the Rose.
American cities are too inclined to be barren
wastes of brick and stone, with but scant provision
for plant beauty. Even the rich, who
have their elaborate and beautiful country
gardens, seem to forget the plants and flowers
when they come to the city. The self-tending
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