g6 LIMNANTHEMUM LACUNOSUM. FLOATING HEART. 



ever, does not seem to have been taken in charge by gardeners, 

 but would no doubt do as v^ell as any of the rest. For small 

 lakes or ponds it would be very appropriate. The way to plant 

 these, and water plants generally, is to tie them up loosely in 

 thin muslin, with earth and stones, and then sink the whole bundle 

 in the water. 



There have been no poetical associations connected with the 

 Floating Heart, as there have been with so many other repre- 

 sentatives of the gciitianaceous order. It seems strange that it 

 has been overlooked. Emblematists might surely have discov- 

 ered in the dart-like, faded flowers, partly seen from the heart- 

 shaped leaves, some relation to the story of Cupid, and this 

 the more so from its very suggestive common name of Floating 

 Heart. 



It is remarkable that there should be but very few species in 

 the genus to which our plant belongs, and yet that there should 

 be representatives of it in every quarter of the globe. Its head- 

 quarters seems to be in the East Indies, where there may be half 

 a dozen species. There are, also, one or two in New Holland, 

 about the same number at the Cape of Good Hope, and two in 

 our own country. One is found in Japan, another in Europe 

 and Eastern Asia, one in Brazil and one in South America, with 

 possibly a few others here and there. 



Our Floatine Heart seems to be abundant in Maine and New 

 England, becoming rare as it reaches New Jersey, although it 

 extends to Florida on this side of the Alleghanies. Its western 

 limit in the north seems to be Ohio, but it travels southwest and 

 is found in abundance in Missouri and Arkansas. 



The specimen from which the accompanying drawing was 

 made was kindly furnished to us by Mr. Jackson Dawson, the 

 head grardener of the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Mass. 



o 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. Barren leaves. — 2. Fertile leaf. — 3. Closed flowers, 

 showing fringed edged petals enlarged. — 4. Enlarged expanded flower. — 5. Flowers, 

 natural size, showing calyx. — 6. Flowers, natural size, showing incurved petals. 



