How to obtain it. 



97 



water. Shell fish deposit their spawn freely upon its leaves. Of! 

 all plants, the lakewort and the water lobelia are, I think, two of 

 the most suitable for introduction into trout ponds. The latter 

 was named in honour of the Flemish physician, Matthias de Lobel, 

 who was botanist to James I. 



The great water moss {Fontinalis antiftyreticd) is a valuable 

 plant, and delights,in rocky streams and raceways. It also does 

 well in ponds where there is a good current, and grows chiefly 

 on stones, though it may often be found in streams growing on 

 wood or tree roots, and I have found it growing freely on gravel 

 beds in lakes. It is very useful in providing a good shelter for 

 trout, and also is an insect producer, and in raceways is (j 

 invaluable. One great advantage is that it does not grow with ' 

 sufficient luxuriance to choke places up as some plants do, and it 

 is easily thinned out if desirable. It can be introduced by 

 planting stones on which specimens are growing, or by placing 

 tufts of it in the gravel. Planting in raceways and streams is 

 easily done by simply fastening a stone on to the root of the plant 

 and pressing it into the bottom. 



In addition to the great water moss, the starwort (Calluriche) 

 and water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) are useful in streams. 

 The latter sometimes becomes a pest when it gets into ponds. It 

 is needful, therefore, to use care in introducing it into pond or 

 lake tributaries, and the same applies to some other plants. The 

 milfoil (Myriophylluni], for instance, is an excellent plant in many 

 streams, but in ponds it is a perfect pest. When it occurs in a 

 stream which feeds a pond, the seeds or small portions of the 

 plant itself will inevitably float down into the pond and grow. 

 Some of the Ranuncidatea are exceedingly acrid and have been 

 used for producing blisters, but the wounds made proved very 

 troublesome and difficult to heal. Ranunculus flanuuula already 

 referred to is one of these, though in trout ponds it does not 

 seem to be injurious, but rather the reverse. The water celery or|l 

 celery-leaved crowfoot (R. scehiatus) I have carefully avoided, asjj 

 well as some others of the genus, on account of their acrid 1 1 

 tendencies. 



The bladderwort (Utriciilaria vnlgaris) has been found toll 

 eat fish, or at least to destroy them. This discovery was made by J| 

 H 



