THE CITY YARD 



not have to cut away the overhanging growths 

 to afford h'ght to it. On the contrary, if your 

 yard were big enough for trees of a drooping 

 habit, the very place for them would be near 

 this pool, where their inverted image paints it- 

 self against the reflected pattern of the sky. If 

 it is deemed safe to omit the curbing, all the 

 better, and the installation of the tank makes the 

 fountain easily possible, because it makes some 

 equivalent imperative: that is, you must get 

 water into the tank after you have built it. The 

 flower-beds near the water will be refreshed by 

 the spray, and both beds and pond will gain in 

 charm from one another. If you have such a 

 pond, the water-flowers can be grown there in 

 heavy, porous boxes, sunk at the bottom and 

 filled with loam and compost. And after the 

 water clears it is well to introduce gold and sil- 

 ver fish, not for appearance' sake alone, but be- 

 cause they purify the pond, consuming worms 

 and insects that may fall into it. If, for any 

 reason, fish are undesirable, try, by all means, 

 to persuade some dragon-flies, or devil's darning- 

 needles, to inhabit near. These beautiful crea- 

 tures, the terror of the ignorant, who believe that 



IS 



