CHAPTER XX. 

 WATER-PLANTS IN CALIFORNIA GARDENS. 



To show the wide range of possibilities which welcome the Cali- 

 fornia amateur to garden work, we contrast the heat-and-drouth-cul- 

 tures of the preceding chapter with the growth of plants in water. 

 This is delightful gardening sport in California for two reasons: First, 

 because we can grow in the open air gorgeous water lilies, for which, 

 at the east and in most parts of Europe, costly houses of glass need 

 to be provided; second, because if proper arrangements are made, the 

 amount of water required is very little. Once on a time someone told 

 our friend, Mr. C. B. Messenger of the California Cultivator, that by 

 having a tight bottom to it "an aquarium and water-lily combination 

 requires no more water than an equal area of lawn" and we presume 

 that is not far from right; for, in the case of the pond, one- has little 

 to make up but the surface evaporation, while in the lawn he has the 

 surface of the earth and -all the surfaces of all the grass blades acting 

 as evaporators not to speak of the lawn-water which leaks away 

 through the soil. However such a calculation may come out, it is 

 perfectly true that one can grow aquatics in a very little body of water 

 as will be shown below. It is also true that, in connection with our 

 thousands of small irrigation reservoirs, there is a little ocean of idle 

 water growing green-scum, water-weeds and mosquitoes, which ought 

 to be set to work growing water lilies and gold fish. For although, 

 in the drier parts of the state, we have fewer natural lakes and ponds 

 than they have in humid regions, there is, nevertheless, a good deal of 

 water standing around doing nothing; and it is also practical to get a 

 lot of joy from some of the busy water in such regions, because it will 

 require so very little of it. 



How a Man Came to California to Grow Aquatics. We have 

 always wondered what kind of a goose all his old friends thought him 

 to be, when, about twenty-five years ago, Mr. E. D. Sturtevant, who 

 was then the most prominent eastern expert on water lilies, etc., came 

 to a semi-arid country to grow aquatics! But it does not matter much 

 what they thought, for he soon showed them he was wise, because he 

 could do so many things in the California open air which he always 

 had to measure by acres of glass and carloads of coal in his old home. 

 Of course he made a good location for frost-freedom and located in 

 the old Cahuenga Valley, where they used to grow pineapples, string 

 beans and tomatoes in the winter without protection before the valley 

 became the delightful Hollywood section of Los Angeles. And he also 

 always found water enough for his aquatics in spite of the light rain- 

 fall and the increased appreciation of it engendered by the strong 



