THE HARDY AQUATIC PLANTS 



The ripples seem right glad to reach those cresses, 



And cool themselves among the emerald tresses ; 



The while they cool themselves, they freshness give, 



And moisture, that the bowery green may live : 



So keeping up an interchange of favours, 



Like good men in the truth of their behaviours. KEATS. 



As is natural in a low-lying garden on the banks of 

 the Cherwell, and in its early days constantly menaced by 

 floods, marsh and aquatic plants were not difficult to cul- 

 tivate. Robert Sharrock, in his " Improvement to the Art of 

 Gardening," third edition, informs us that " The Artificial Bog 

 is made by digging a hole in any stiff clay, and filling it with 

 earth taken from a bog ... of this sort. In our Garden here 

 in Oxford, we have one artificially made by Bobart, for the 

 preservation of Boggy plants, where, being sometimes watered, 

 they thrive for a year or two as well as in their natural places." 



Baxter cultivated his smaller aquatics in the south-east 

 corner of the Garden in a series of small square tanks, each a 

 foot across, which had been constructed for the purpose by 

 Dr. Sibthorp, and which lasted for more than half a century 

 with very little need of repair. Among other moisture-loving 

 species, Sibthorpia europaea was most appropriately grown 

 there. 



The present inadequate provision for Hardy Aquatics consists 

 of two old cement tanks made in 1834, as part of Dr. Daubeny's 

 original plan, at a cost of ^"144 8*. 6^., and frequent frosts 

 have greatly increased the outlay upon them. The smaller 

 plants are grown in small compartments upon a raised shelf 

 round the periphery of the tanks. 



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