1870.] HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 251 



seen it very beautiful and interesting, but shortlived, in its display in 

 the light sandy soil of the gardens at Kew, and in a southern aspect. 

 It is a plant rarely seen in private gardens, and not always to be met 

 with in botanical gardens in this country, but it is worthy a place in 

 every garden, if the conditions necessary to its wellbeing can only be 

 secured. 



NYMPHyEACEiE. 



The members of this order are all aquatic or marsh plants. It is an 

 order of the grandest interest and beauty. All the world has rung 

 with the praise and fame of the regal Victoria, the noblest of Water- 

 Lilies, and the sparklingly beautiful species and varieties of the tender 

 Nymphseas are plants of the loveliest type. Although an attempt or 

 two has been made, and attended with some success, to cultivate the 

 Victoria in the open air in tanks of water artificially heated, we must 

 not claim the wonderful plant as a hardy subject in this country; and 

 it is scarcely possible, even though, for the purposes of sensation, it 

 may appear desirable, to cram the representatives of the genera of every 

 clime into the cramped limits of our little but glorious isle. Our 

 efforts in making such a universal omnium, gatherum of plants would 

 be only less ridiculous and dangerous than the like on the part of the 

 zoologists with animals. It would undoubtedly be sensational to have 

 the lion or the tiger pricking up one's senses by a growl or a spring 

 from the hedge by the wayside, but the beauty or the comfort of the 

 thing would be questionable, at least to mortals of ordinary nerve. We 

 have no need, however, to attempt naturalising the lions of the vege- 

 tation of the tropics, even though by artifice we could assure ourselves 

 of success ; there are plenty of the tamer, but not less beautiful, plants 

 of temperate and northern climes, which, without either much trouble 

 or expense, may be had for the various purposes that may be enter- 

 tained in out-of-doors gardening in this country. JSuphar, scarcely 

 less beautiful than Nymphasa, furnishes four or five hardy species of 

 aquatics, and Nymphaea gives us about the same number, which may 

 fairly vie with the most admired of the tropical species and varieties 

 as seen in our stoves. These hardy Water-Lilies are very ornamental 

 objects in lakes, ponds, and gently-running streams, and their culture 

 is the most simple. They are easily propagated by division in spring 

 as growth commences, the only care necessary being to secure the 

 plants to the position they are to occupy by some kind of anchor till 

 they take root and fix themselves, which they quickly do. Seeds also 

 may be used as soon as they are ripe ; or, if the seeds have to be 

 transported a distance, they should be put in small bottles of water, 

 and kept cool. They are usually sown by being cast into the water 



