1 74 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the attacks of the water rat and other creatures which cannot be kept 

 out of ponds fed by streamlets. By these and river banks or back- 

 waters water rats are hard to destroy, and guns, traps, ferrets, or any 

 other means must be used. The common brown rat is not so fond of 

 these flowers as the true water rat, but it is so destructive to every- 

 thing else, that it is essential to destroy it at the same time, as it 

 often abounds near water. The water or moorhen is continuously 

 destructive to all the Water-Lilies, pecking at the flowers until mere 

 shreds are left, and no one can fairly judge of the rare beauty of 

 these plants where these birds are not kept down. 



Our island homes, with a vast storm-vexed shore-line, abounding 

 rivers and beautiful inland waters, offer interesting work to the 



planter. And not without difficulties ; but these 

 Waterside trees, difficulties are pleasant to remember when we 



get over them, as we may. Wild shores, often 

 bare and free to the wild, sharp kisses of the sea ; innumerable lovely 

 sites now desolate will in time invite men to plant : hence the 

 importance of good work on such ground. And we may bear in 

 mind its great advantages in some ways, as we get these good 

 things talked of in books, but seldom seen in home landscape work, 

 breath, air, repose, graceful contours of earth, fair backgrounds of 

 Willow and many trees. Few need be told of the beauty of our 

 inland waters, loved for many reasons. Yet it is when we think of 

 lands without the gift of water, such as some parts of our own 

 Eastern and Southern country, and the land around Lyons in France 

 and about Berlin, that we feel more than ever the precious gain of 

 abounding rivers, lakes like those of England and Western Ireland 

 and noble estuaries and bays of many parts of our islands. Even 

 those who care for good planting in ordinary ground are apt to 

 neglect the waterside, and we see much land near it without any of 

 the lovely effects which well chosen river or lake side trees give. 

 The best waterside trees are often those of our own country and 

 Europe, easily procured, fine in colour and good in form. There are 

 certainly gains in waterside position which we do not find elsewhere ; 

 we get air and light, shade and breadth, from the water itself, which 

 prevents the dotting of plants over the whole area. Again, there 

 are often good lands beside rivers liable to flood, which we cannot 

 well plant with ordinary trees, and cannot wisely build upon, and 

 these give us those rich levels that are such a gain to lowland land- 

 scape when fringed by noble planting. Flooding is not against the 

 right trees upon islands, lake margins and riversides. Some of the 

 best trees, like the Eastern Plane that we often associate with hot 

 dry soils, seem happy in ground sometimes flooded, as we may see 

 in the good soils in Southern valleys. 



