1 68 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



The water margin offers to lovers of hardy flowers a site easily 

 made into a fair garden. Hitherto we have used in such places 

 aquatic plants only, and of these usually a very 

 Waterside plants, meagre selection ; while the improvement of the 

 waterside may be most readily effected by planting 

 the banks near with vigorous hardy flowers, as many of the finest 

 plants, from Irises to Globe Flowers, thrive in moist soil. Water- 

 side plants have this advantage over water plants that we can fix 

 their position, whereas water plants spread so much that some kinds 

 over-run others. The repeating of a favourite plant at intervals 

 would mar all ; groups of free hardy things would be best : Day 

 Lilies, Meadow Sweets, tall Irises, which love wet places ; Gunnera, 

 American swamp Lilies in peaty soil, the rosy Loosestrife, Golden 

 Rods, Starworts, the Compass plants, Monkshoods, giant Knotworts, 

 Moon Daisies, the Cardinal Flower, the common Lupine these are 

 some of many types of hardy flowers which would grow freely near 

 the waterside. With these hardy plants, too, a variety of the nobler 

 hardy Ferns, such "as the Royal Ferns and Feather Ferns, would 

 associate well. 



Water plants of northern and temperate regions associated 

 with our native water plants, add much beauty to a garden. If the 

 soil be rich, we usually see the same monotonous 

 Water plants, vegetation all round the margin of the water, and 

 where the bottom is of gravel there is often little 

 vegetation, only an unbroken, ugly line of washed earth. A group 

 of Water-Lily is beautiful, but Water-Lilies lose their charm when 

 they spread over the whole of a piece of water, and even waterfowl 

 cannot make their way through them. The Yellow Water-Lily 

 (Nuphar lutea), though less beautiful, is well worthy of a place, 

 and so is the large N. advena (a native of America), which pushes 

 its leaves above the water. The American white Water-Lilies 

 (Nymphaea odorata and N. tuberosa) are hardy and beautiful, 

 and of recent years much beauty has been given our water plants in 

 the hybrid hardy Water-Lilies raised by M. Latour Marliac, who 

 has added the large and noble forms and the lovely colour of the 

 Eastern Water-Lilies to the garden waters of northern countries. 

 The splendid beauty of these plants should lead people to think of 

 artistic ways of planting garden waters. 



Even where natural ponds exist it frequently happens that the 



banks of the pond, as well as the water itself, are either perfectly 



bare, or are covered only by the rankest weeds. 



Forming the The ponds chiefly considered here are those mostly 



water garden, formed without cement, by natural flooding from a 



brook, streamlet or river. If the water supply 



