276 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
shallow muddy water, but not dangerously prolific, if kept 
in hand—and very delightful with its long thin leaves 
and its refined dainty spears of brown plush. The Apono- 
geton is quite different, so like a Potamogeton in growth 
that I am always confusing the names. It throws its 
oval leaves along the surface of the water though, not 
particular, I think, as to depth, but perhaps preferring 
about eighteen inches to two feet. In midwinter and 
through a long scattered season unfold the curious, 
divided spikes of white flowers, deliciously hawthorn- 
scented, and appearing in such abundance as to make the 
water look as if covered with drifted snow of petals. 
Though the Aponogeton hails from South Africa, it is 
absolutely hardy, if given sufficient protecting depth of 
water, and left to look after itself in some still pool. 
Almost all aquatics dislike running water, or rather 
water in too rapid movement. And, at the head of the 
list come the Queens of the Water Garden, the royal 
Nymphs themselves. From the common white Water- 
Lily of our lakes to the newest reddest dearest hybrid, 
all alike must have deep tranquil water, unworried by a 
violent current, though not, of course, in a state of stag- 
nation. ‘The best thing, in cultivation, is to give your 
pool, if you lack a mild feeding stream, a tiny little 
incessant jet at one end or the other, to keep the water 
perpetually fresh and moving, to the confusion of green 
slime and weed. 
There is no need, now, to trouble with the common 
white Water-Lily. So much larger, so much stronger, 
so much more brilliantly white are the big foreigners and 
hybrids, candida, gigantea, Richardsoni, gladstoniana, 
of which Richardsoni has the merit of pushing its great 
semi-globular white blossoms high above the water. 
Between any of these and the others in the matter 
of vigour, there is nothing at all to choose. For the 
