256 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



new hybrid kinds continue blooming long after our native kind has 

 ceased, and from the middle of May to nearly the end of October 

 flowers are abundant. 



For many }-ears, pond, streamlet, and lake to a very considerable 

 extent were left very much to themselves, with scarce a thought 

 bestowed upon them or the plants for beautifying their surface or 

 margin. In a large London nursery nearly twenty-five years ago, 

 where a very large and, perhaps, complete collection of water plants 

 existed, I was surprised to find that so very few aquatic plants should 

 be required year after year ; so few, indeed, that the cost of maintain- 

 ing the whole was barely met. This was most discouraging, because 

 even water plants, where a representative collection is grown, cannot 



Pond at Enys, Cornwall. From a photograph sent by Mr. F. W. Meyer, Exeter. 



receive the necessary space for their free growth in a nursery. This 

 was even so in the case of that lovely and fragrant Cape Pond 

 Flower (Aponogeton), that, seeding in such abundance, was floated 

 hither and thither in thousands, and in consequence had to be kept 

 in check. The rapid increase of this plant, however, is by no means 

 common ; indeed, many instances are known where it cannot be 

 induced to flourish in the open. But in the nursery referred to, by 

 reason of the quantity and size of the plants, flowers of this Apono- 

 geton were gathered the greater part of the year, in the wintry season 

 even its flowers floating on the surface by hundreds. The water in 

 this instance, supplied from an artesian spring, contributed to the 

 success of the plant, as also its freedom of flowering. Gradually 



