WATER IN THE GARDEN 



the ground, but lives on the water, as orchids 

 do on air. If our httle lake Is a dozen feet or 

 more across, we can have a tinted variety of 

 pond-lily, the pale yellow, or the pink, to live 

 with the white. If it is shallow and has turfy 

 banks, we may have a growth of bamboo, or 

 canebrake, or papyrus, at one side. The latter, 

 which in its form is like a miniature palm, is 

 doubtless the most tractable of the grasses for a 

 small pool, as It does not often exceed four feet 

 in our latitude. This is the grass that gave to 

 the world the earliest material for the impres- 

 sions of pen and Ink, and from the word papyrus 

 we keep the name of paper, to this day. There 

 is something foreign In its aspect and it brings 

 into our home ground a vision, howsoever faint, 

 of the land of the Pyramids, the sunrise land of 

 mystery. 



Other possibilities for the boggy shore or 

 shallow water are the pickerel-weed, arrow- 

 head, snakehead, marsh-marigold, pitcher-plant, 

 showy orchis, and, near by, where their roots 

 will be well moistened, the daffodil, iris, cardinal- 

 flower and forget-me-not. There is a tendency 

 to put too much Into the water itself, and quite 

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