CHAPTER XVIII 



TREES AND SHRUBS FOR WATERSIDE 



MANY of the brightest garden pictures at the present 

 day are by the well-planted pond or lakeside, where 

 shrubs of large growth are grouped to give colour 

 through summer and winter. 



The wild plants of the riverside are in themselves 

 for the most part large of stature and important of 

 appearance. When one sees the upright growth and 

 large leaves of the Great Water Dock (Rumex) and 

 the broad round ones (2 feet or more across) of the 

 Butter-Bur (Petasites), and the beds of the Common 

 Reed (Phragmites), 8 to 10 feet high, with its 

 great brown-black plumes, and the curious bright- 

 green Horsetail (Equisetum), and the rosy banks of 

 Willow-herb and Loose-strife, and the calm wide 

 breadths of the white Water Lily in the still back- 

 waters ; when we see all these lessons that Nature 

 teaches by the riverside we perceive that for the 

 best of good effect of waterside gardening we need 

 not be afraid of planting things of bold growth 

 largely. 



When we come to garden plants there are many 

 families that are never so happy as when close to 

 water, or in soil that always feels the cool, moistening 



influence of water within a few feet below them. 



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