264 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



of the river Fal within 20 feet of salt water, and his success has been 

 great, as may be imagined when I say that the plants now form a broad 

 margin to a portion of the lake about 300 yards in length and vary- 

 ing in width from i yard to 3 yards. The flowers on this belt open,, 

 at one time in June last, were estimated at 10,000, and the annual 

 number is not less than 50,000. After a mild winter, such as that of 

 1895-96, cutting commences in February; by Easter the number of 

 flowers is immense, and their production is continued to the end of 

 September. The hardiness of the plants was well tested in the 

 winter of 1894-95, when ice sufficiently thick to be skated on was 

 formed on the lake, but this only served to check and not to destroy 

 any of the plants, the check on those plants with crowns near the 

 surface being sufficiently severe to prove that a good depth of water 

 over the crowns is safest. 



The method adopted for planting is simple enough and involves 

 but little labour. Plants which have been forced are taken direct to 

 the water, carried in a boat to the position selected, and then simply 

 dropped overboard, after which they soon commence to root freely in 

 the pond mud. A large waggon-load was treated in this way last 

 year, and this represents about the usual rate of annual increase by 

 new plantings. The position chosen for the Arums by the lake-side 

 is a sunny, but well-sheltered one, and here the plants revel to such 

 a degree as to have induced owners of other estates in Cornwall to- 

 plant largely on the same lines, with, of course, greater climatic 

 advantages than can be found in the country at large. But does not 

 the proved well-doing of the plants in water 2 feet deep open up 

 possibilities for their cultivation in colder climes ? — J. C. Tallack, 

 Livermere. 



Enemies. — Many water plants will grow almost anywhere and 

 bid defiance to game or rats, but the newer and rarer Water Lilies 

 are worth looking after, as they will not show half their beauty if 

 they are subjected to the attacks of certain water animals. They 

 may, indeed, when young be easily exterminated by them, and even 

 when old and established the common water rat destroys the flowers,, 

 and, taking them to the bank, eats them at its leisure, and I have often 

 found the remains of half a dozen fine flowers in one spot. When the 

 plants are small, the attacks of the common moorhen and other water- 

 fowl may mean all the difference between life and death to a Water 

 Lily. Perhaps, therefore, the first thing to be done in establishing 

 these plants is to put them in some small pond apart from the rougher 

 water-side plants, and especially where they will be safe from the 

 attacks of the water rat and other creatures which cannot be kept out 

 of ponds fed by streamlets. By these and river banks or back-waters 

 water rats are hard to destroy, and guns, traps, ferrets, or any other 



