74 Old Time Gardens 



aware when I visited one in a friend's garden early 

 in May this year. Water-hyacinths were even 

 then in bloom, and two or three exquisite Lilies ; 

 and the Lotus leaves rose up charmingly from the 

 surface of the tank. Less charmingly rose up also 

 a cloud of vicious mosquitoes, who greeted the new- 

 comer with a warm chorus of welcome. As our 

 newspapers at that time were filled with plans for 

 the application of kerosene to every inch of water- 

 surface, such as I saw in these Lily tanks, accom- 

 panied by magnified drawings of dreadful malaria- 

 bearing insects, I fled from them, preferring to resign 

 both Nympbtea and Anopheles. 



After the introduction to English folk of that 

 wonder of the world, the Victoria Regia, it was 

 cultivated by enthusiastic flower lovers in Amer- 

 ica, and was for a time the height of the floral 

 fashion. Never has the glorious Victoria Regia 

 and scarce any other flower been described as by 

 Colonel Higginson, a wonderful, a triumphant word 

 picture. I was a very little child when I saw that 

 same lovely Lily in leaf and flower that he called 

 his neighbor ; but I have never forgotten it, nor 

 how afraid I was of it ; for some one wished to 

 lift me upon the great leaf to see whether it would 

 hold me above the water. We had heard that the 

 native children in South America floated on the 

 leaves. I objected to this experiment with vehe- 

 mence ; but my mother noted that I was no more 

 frightened than was the faithful gardener at the 

 thought of the possible strain on his precious plant 

 of the weight of a sturdy child of six or seven years. 



