226 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



WATER PLANTS WITHOUT WATER. 



|ER"Y many amateurs would enjoy the making and 

 managing of a garden of aquatic plants, could they 

 but see the way clearly to some reasonable degree of 

 success. I gladly confess that a new light has dawned 

 upon me in. reference to this subject, and I hasten to 

 declare and to prove that a considerable number of the most beauti- 

 ful aquatic plants may be grown to perfection without the aid of 

 river, lake, pond, or even washing tub. I am indebted to the water 

 rats for this new lesson, and I really think, instead of endeavouring 

 to lessen their numbers, as I have been, I ought to encourage them 

 in the hope that they will in due time teach me something more. 



Having a suitable piece of water in the form of a small lake in 

 one garden, and a pretty brook in another, the brook always flowing 

 and keeping the little lake well supplied with pure water, it was but 

 proper I should resolve to form a garden of aquatics. Accordingly, 

 in the autumn of last year, I obtained from Mr. Ware, of the Hale 

 Nurseries, Tottenham, a nice lot of hardy aquatic plants in pots, 

 and they were carefully stowed away in a cold pit until the month 

 of April last past. They were then in nice condition, and were 

 planted carefully in sites adapted to their several habits, some in deep 

 water, others in shallow, etc., etc. The voles or water rats, of which 

 we have a considerable number, attacked my pets immediately ; they 

 nibbled them and trampled them, and soon killed a large number 

 outright. I set traps and resorted to other methods of procedure, 

 but while I waited to catch one vole, my plants were going, going, 

 at such a pace that I gave up the conflict, and determined to save 

 the wreck of my collection. It was late in the month of May, 

 when I made this resolve. I dug up the best of the remaining 

 plants and potted them in pots, rather small for the size of the 

 plants, filling the pots with clay and a little rotten manure, and 

 with only one flat crock over the hole in the pot. Every pot was 

 stood in a pan or saucer of the kind ordinarily made for the use of 

 pot plants, and they were kept in a rather shady place until they 

 began to grow. A few started splendidly at once, others were slow 

 to move, but as they gathered strength, I put them in the full sun, 

 and of course they were liberally supplied with water, and being in 

 pans, the bottoms of the pots were always in about one inch depth. 

 I am now delighted with the beautiful and promising appearance of 

 the plants. A tuft of Alisma plantago in a ten inch pot has been 

 in flower some time, and is a much more beautiful object than I could 

 ever have supposed it would prove as a pot plant, although because 

 of its beauty I allowed it to remain undisturbed among the water 

 cresses, for I love to see its lace-like panicles of pinky-white flowers 

 in the month of July, when its handsome leaves and three petalled 

 flowers are both at their best. The noble Typlta angustifolia has 

 not flowered, for it was pretty well devoured, but it is a plant once 

 more, and promises to do its duty. The brave Butomns mnbellatus, 

 the double Caltha pahtstris, the variegated forms of Iris foetidissima, 



