THE 



GARDENER. 



MAY 1 88 1. 



NOTES. 



[QUATIC plants are now becoming more generally appre- 

 ciated, and this is especially true of the small -growing 

 kinds. Salvinia natans, Azolla (pinnata) Caroliniana, 

 Triansea bogotensis, Pistia stratiotes, and Myriophyllum 

 proserpinoides are all worth a place, and may all be 

 easily grown in small pans or inverted bell-glasses in a stove tem- 

 perature. During the summer months the Azolla, Salvinia, and My- 

 riophyllum grow freely enough in tubs or sheltered open-air tanks. 

 A friend to whom I gave Salvinia last season, used it with excellent 

 effect as a substitute for the sprig of flower or leaf in finger-glasses ; 

 and I have no doubt Mr Wills could show off these little curiosities to 

 advantage in those miniature lakes with which he so artistically embel- 

 lishes his ice-rockeries or Filmy-Fern glades. 



Ouvirandra fenestralis is well known as one of the most rare and 

 curious of all aquatics. Its cultivation, however, is not always a suc- 

 cess. The following are, I think, essential to its wellbeing : 1. Pure 

 soft rain or river water. 2. Pure fibrous peat, and a little silver-sand 

 as compost. 3. A pot as small as possible. 4. The water to be re- 

 freshed twice daily, morning and evening, by watering overhead with 

 a fine-rosed water-pot. 5. Dense shade : direct sunlight is fatal by 

 browning the leaves and favouring the growth of confervse. 6. An 

 opaque-sided pan or slate-tank to grow it in. 7. Temperature of water 

 never below 60°. 8. A large body of compost at the bottom of the pan 

 or tank is bad, as when planted out in this it is difficult to remove the 

 plant, if the earth around it becomes vitiated or sour. Our plant 



o 



