

*irg mt ^me -a mp ing ^nr -aitr ■% 



Vol. V. 



82.00 a Year. 

 24 Numbers. 



CHICAGO, JANUARY i, 1897. 



Single Copt 

 10 Cents. 



No. 104. 



WATER LILY POND ON THE GROUNDS OF HON. JAMES ARKELL, CANAJOHARIE. N. Y. 



Aquatics. 



WATER LILIES. 



The water lily lake in the accompanying 

 picture, though wholly artificial, forms 

 quite an attractive feature of this place. 

 It also shows what can be done despite 

 adverse conditions. It is only a few3'ears 

 since the ground where these gardens are 

 was nothing but a rocky barren baseball 

 ground, but it fell into the hands of those 

 born with an innate love for the beautiful 

 who have at great expense made every 

 corner of it blossom as the rose. 



I said the lake was wholly artificial in 

 its make up, yet it really is a pleasant 



medium between the cement and the 

 natural pond. The whole place is on lime 

 stone rock, and in some parts there was 

 not an inch of soil originally, so the lake 

 was formed with soil from other parts, 

 making a bank at the north side some 10 

 feet deep and somewhat kidney shaped. 

 What natural soil was there was also 

 thrown up to help make the banks, this 

 being beaten and trodden down as firm 

 as possible. Then the banks all round 

 the inside and bottom were well puddled 

 with two to three feet of clay, the same 

 paved with stone and cement and the 

 whole cemented over the top and rubbed 

 in with an old broom. This last we have 

 to do every spring some three feet down 

 the banks. The top of the bank is sodded 

 and there is a gravel walk all round. 



The end of the lake not seen in the 

 picture is the largest part. In that part 

 there is an island on which is planted a 

 variety of shrubs, trees and hardy plants 

 such as willows, dogwoods, acacias, 

 hibiscus, rudbeckias, grasses, etc. Around 

 this island is a bed for hardy lilies some 

 three feet below the water level. 



Other beds are made in the bottom of 

 the lake all over, while all along the 

 banks are level places for the tubs con- 

 taining the tropical lilies, and stone piers 

 are built up in the open spaces in the bot- 

 tom for the same purpose and made so 

 that the plants will have from one to 

 two feet of water over them. Above this 

 and neaier the edge of the lake are a 

 number of beds for planting out all sorts 

 of hardy and tropical water plants dirr- 



