240 PONDS AND LAKES. 



was deepened and a foot of soil, not in spots but along the 

 entire front, was replaced by the richest mixture I could 

 make of mould and manure. Pond-lilies are great feeders, 

 and I intended to give them the best chance I could to 

 look their prettiest. For the Nelumbiums or lotuses con- 

 siderable clay is needed. Fortunately, my soil had nat- 

 urally plenty of clay. I used, moreover, other kinds of 

 water-plants besides lilies, and some of them, as well as 

 certain lilies, were tender, coming as they do originally 

 from the tropics. 



The tender ones I bought anew every year, at a moder- 

 ate expense, from one of the few growers in America. I 

 may have expended during some years one hundred and 

 even one hundred and fifty dollars, but it was a small sum 

 compared with the amount necessary to keep up a green- 

 house fitted with suitable tanks. Water-lilies and aquatic 

 plants winter badly in cellars. They are easily excited to 

 grow by a little excess of light and heat, and as easily 

 checked and injured by an excess of cold. Except a few 

 kinds, such as the wonderful blue and purple water-lilies of 

 Zanzibar, which I bought yearly, I have therefore managed 

 to content myself w r ith a number of perfectly hardy aqua- 

 tics, including some of the best water-lilies and lotuses. 

 Doubtless the biggest, grandest, and most effective of these 

 was the lotus Nelmnbium speciosum. This plant is the 

 greatest feeder of all, and will thrive prodigiously in the 

 richest, rankest mud that can be concocted. It will, in 

 fact, crowd out most other plants, and should be thinned 

 every year so as to appear in clusters and not in monot- 

 onous masses extending from shore to shore. This Nelum- 



