AQUATIC PLANTS 91 



In the small Fountain-pond * in the middle of the Garden 

 grow a few Water-lilies, Flags, and Arrow-heads, and an 

 abundant microscopic flora of algae and small pond animals ; 

 while just beyond the South Gate, in an enclosure closed to 

 the public, is the second, an oval tank originally intended for 

 exotic water-plants. It was into this tank that a small plant 

 of the Canadian Water Thyme, Anacharis alsinastrum, was 

 introduced about 1850. It had not previously been known 

 in this county, but in a marvellously short space of time it 

 spread everywhere. A ditch in the Long Meadow had 

 become filled with "an uninterrupted dense mass" by August, 

 1853 (Baxter MS. Druce's " Flor. Oxf."). It now contains some 

 of Latour-Marliac's hybrid Water-lilies, Reeds, Arrow-heads, 

 and other Aquatics. It is surrounded by concentric steps, 

 upon which the collection of " Alpine Plants " is displayed 

 during the summer months.t They go into cold frames in 

 the winter. A flower of the Bog Bean, Menyanthes trifoliate^ 

 grown in the Garden was figured in Mr. Baker's article on 

 Aquatic Plants. Aponogeton distachyon has a curious tooth- 

 brush-shaped flower with a hawthorn scent. 



As we have remarked elsewhere, it is a great pity that 

 greater advantage should not be taken of the favourable 

 situation of the Garden for the extension of its Marsh and 

 Aquatic Department. A supplementary supply of water might, if 

 wanted, be obtained by means of a ram at Holywell Mill sluice. 



* Neither of our ponds was the one in which Mrs. John Tradescant 

 drowned herself on April 3, 1678, out of chagrin at the decision of the 

 Court of Chancery, in consequence of which, her deceased husband's 

 wonderful "closet of curiosities" was carried off to Oxford to pose as 

 " Ashmole's" Museum. That pond was in the Botanic Garden in South 

 Lambeth. But the round pond was the one into which the Professor of 

 Botany (circ. 1880) inadvertently plunged when learning to ride one of 

 the old high bicycles in the Garden after the closing hour. 



f The practice of putting out pot-plants in this quarter dates from the 

 time of the elder Bobart. Loggan's plan shows twenty-eight large pots 

 there in 1675. Water was obtained from the ditch by means of a pump. 



