106 
THE AQUARIUM, APRIL, 1897. 

points of excellence which combine to 
make it the plant of the million. 
Their Ease of Culture.—Proverbially 
they are the easiest cared for of all 
flowers. Plant and the work is done. 
No hoeing, weeding or watering neces- 
sary. When once established they 
glory in the drouth and rejoice in the 
floods. A superabundance of the finest 
of flower on every occasion, without 
care or attention, is a specialty of the 
Water Lily family. They never be- 
come troublesome or pestiferous in 
ponds, and can be easily eradicated 
when desired. 
Next, Economy of Space.—Water 
lilies grow where nothing else will, 
spreading out their lovely foliage to 
hide the ugly mud hole, animate the 
lonely, naked pond, and fringe the mo- 
notonous lake, yielding a rich harvest 
of beauty, health and pleasure from 
places otherwise unsightly, unhealthy 
and worthless. 
The curious cactus may lie roasting 
on the barren rocks or the hidden 
wastes of the desert sand, and the 
smiling orchid perch itself on the naked 
branches of the lofty tree, but nothing 
save the water lily can embellish the 
millions of beautiful lakes, streams 
and ponds dotted throughout our land. 
But in thinking of their simplicity 
of culture and unusual beauty, we must 
not forget their usefulness. ‘‘ For 
meat and medicine” they have ever 
been renowned, and in our own age 
they may be made the most useful of 
all our ornamental plants. In syste- 
matic fish culture, aquatics generally, 
and especially such as yield an abun- 
dance of seed, are indispensable. With 
this, as other successful pursuits, sci- 
entific accuracy, combined with prac- 
tical utility, is the watch-word ; and 
the idea of attempting to grow nice, 
| 


wholesome fish in stagnant ponds, 
pools or hatcheries, with their whole 
surface exposed to the boiling sun, and 
not a trace of vegetable matter for the 
fish to forage on, is utterly inconsistent, 
as well as unprofitable and unhealthy. 
It seems to be the divine purpose and 
object of the Creator that water plants 
should meet the necessities of water 
animals, ‘They are mutually depend- 
ent upon each other just as terrestrial 
plants and animals are. But this sub- 
ject has already been thoroughly dis- 
cussed, and we shall note no other use 
of the water lily, which alone, regardless 
of all its other desirable qualities, will 
make its culture in this country a uni- 
versal necessity. 
It is rot a well-known, but, how- 
ever, a thoroughly established fact, that 
aquatics are a certain preventive of the 
various germs of malarial fevers. Such 
diseases have their origin from decay- 
ing vegetation in low, swampy places 
and stagnant water. The water lily is 
at home in such places, neutralizing 
the poisonous germs and absorbing the 
effluvia that give rise to these diseases, 
and finally destroying their habitat. 
This is a question of general and na- 
tional interest and is sure, aS soon as 
better understood, to promote the water 
lily to universal esteem. 
Then can we not see in the water-lily 
a combination that cannot be broken 
down, a plant whose merits cannot be 
overrated or its virtues too highly sung 
—the culmination of every point that 
could be desired in the beau-ideal of 
horticulture ? Who can for a moment 
trace its history through the last four 
thousand years and see its identification 
with every civilized tongue and doubt 
for a moment its possibility in our own 
discreet American land ? 
GEO. B. MouLpEr. 
