WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 265 



means must be used. The common brown rat is not so fond of 

 these flowers as the true water rat, but it is so destructive to every- 

 thing else, that it is essential to destroy it at the same time, as it 

 often abounds near water. The water or moorhen is continuously 

 destructive to all the Water Lilies, pecking at the flowers until mere 

 shreds are left, and no one can fairly judge of the rare beauty of 

 these plants where these birds are not kept down. 



Planting the Waterside. — People are so much led by showy 

 descriptions in catalogues, and also by their own love for ugly things, 

 that we often see misuse by the waterside of variegated shrubs — a 

 bold lake margin almost covered with variegated bushes, like the 

 yellow elder, the purple beech, and even down to the very margin of 

 the water with variegated shrubs, absolutely the worst kind of vegeta- 

 tion which could be chosen for such a place. 



Of all places that one has to deal with in gardening or planting, 

 islands and the margins of water — lake or river — we have the clearest 

 guidance as to the trees and shrubs that inhabit and belong to such 

 places, and that always thrive and look best in them. The vegetation 

 best fitted for those places is mostly of an elegant and spiry character ; 

 willows in many forms often beautiful in colour, in summer or winter, 

 dogwoods and aspen poplars. There is no scarcity of such trees and 

 shrubs at all ; even the willows of Europe and Britain furnish a fine 

 series of trees, and some form tall timber trees like the white willow, 

 and low feathery willows like the rosemary-leaved one. There is also 

 a superb group of weeping trees among these willows, some of them 

 more precious and hardy even than the Babylonian willow. As 

 regards reeds and herbaceous plants, our country and the northern 

 world are very rich indeed, so that we need never use any grossly 

 unsuitable plant for the waterside. 



These facts are worth bearing in mind in seeking true and artistic 

 effects, as the side water properly or improperly planted is strangely 

 different from an artistic point of view. Take for example a piece of 

 water, good in form of margin, and right in every way as to its rela- 

 tion to the landscape ; it is quite easy to spoil the effect of it all by 

 the use of shrubs which have not the form or colour characteristic of 

 the trees and shrubs of the water side. By the right use of the trees 

 or shrubs — true to the soil, so to say — we may, on the other hand, 

 make the scene beautiful in delicate colour and fine form, at all 

 seasons, right, in a word, either as a picture, as a covert, and even for 

 timber, for some of the willows have a high value as timber. 



The best materials for waterside planting are distinctly those of 

 our own country, or of Europe and the northern world generally ; but 

 we need not despise things that are very suitable and which come to 

 us from other countries, and among them some of the bamboos 



