CHAPTER XIX. 



WATER GARDENS. 



IT is not only from the mountain's breast dyed with Violet and 

 Gentian, the Sunflower-strewn prairie of the north, or the sunny fields 

 where Proserpine gathered flowers, that our garden flora comes. 

 River and stream are often fringed with handsome plants, and little 

 fleets of Water-Lily silvery fleets they look as one sees them from 

 the bank sail on the lakelets far away in North America and Asia. 

 One need not go so far to see beautiful plants, as our own country 

 rivers and back-waters of rivers possess many. Our gardens are often 

 wade about towns where there are few chances of seeing our native 

 mater plants, but by the back-waters of rivers and by streams in many 

 situations, and by lakes like the Norfolk Broads one may often see as 

 handsome plants in these places, and also in the open marsh land, 

 as in any garden, and some that we do not often see happy in gardens, 

 such as the Frogbit, the Bladderwort, and Water Soldier. 



Where, as often is the case in artificially made ponds, the margin 



of the water is not the rich deep soil that we have by the Broads and 



by the sides of rivers, which themselves carry 



In artificial down deep beds of rich soil, a good way is to 



waters. put the mud which we take out of the pond 



around its sides a little above and below the 



water-line. This will encourage a rich growth of such Reeds as 



are found beside natural waters. Water with a hard, naked, beaten 



edge and little or no vegetation is not good to look at, and a margin 



of rich living plants is better for fish and game as well as for effect. 



The waterside plants one may establish in that way are worth having 



and give good cover for duck. 



Perhaps the most beautiful of all water gardens are the river and 

 stream gardens, as their form is so much better than anything we 

 can make and the vegetation is often good even without care. With 

 a little thought we can make it much more so, and in our river- 

 seamed land there are so many charming opportunities for water- 

 garden pictures. 



166 



