CHAPTER XV 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 



It is probably in the smaller ponds and pools, or in 

 river banks and back-waters, that most pleasure in 

 true water-gardening may be had. 



Every one who has known the Thames from the 

 intimate point of view of the leisured nature-lover in 

 boat or canoe, must have been struck by the eminent 

 beauty of the native water-side plants ; indeed our 

 water-gardens would be much impoverished if we 

 were debarred from using some of these. Many of 

 them are among the most pictorial of plants. There 

 is nothing of the same kind of form or carriage among 

 exotics that can take the place of the Great Water- 

 Dock {Rumex Hydrolapathum), with its six feet of 

 height and its large long leaves that assume a gor- 

 geous autumn colouring. Then for importance as 

 well as rehnement nothing can be better than the 

 Great Water Plantain, with leaves not unlike those of 

 the Ftmkia but rather longer in shape. Then there 

 is the Great Reed {Phragmites) and the Reedmace 

 that we call Bulrush {Typha), and the true Bulrush 

 {Scirpus) that gives the rushes for rush -bottomed 

 chairs — all handsome things in the water close to the 

 bank. 



