WATER GARDENING IN" CALIFORNIA. 19 



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Nymphaea Zanzibarensis, from Zanzibar, is one of the finest of the 

 family, bearing flowers of the richest purple-blue color, and very 

 fragrant. 



Nymphaea Zanzibarensis Azurea has flowers of a lovely azure blue, 

 the finest of this color. There is also a rosy pink variety. 



Under ordinary culture, the Zanzibar varieties give abundance of 

 good-sized blooms, but under liberal treatment they produce leaves and 

 flowers as large as the other tropical kinds. They open in the morn- 

 ing and close in the evening, like the common water lily. Though 

 their roots are tuberous, the plants are most readily increased by means 

 of seeds. 



VICTORIA REGIA. 



The Victoria regia is the grandest of all aquatics. From a seed the 

 size of a pea it will, under proper conditions, produce a plant having 

 leaves six feet in diameter, and flowers twelve to fifteen inches across. 

 The latter exhale a most delicious perfume like that of pineapples, 

 which pervades the air for a considerable distance. All flower lovers 

 who visit Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where this plant is so 

 successfully grown, find it an object of great interest. 



In cultivating this plant, either under glass or in open air, large 

 specimens are obtained only by having the water artificially heated. 

 In my own garden it reaches a moderate size, and flowers for a con- 

 siderable period in the open air without artificial heat. 



Kecently a new variety has been introduced by an eastern nursery 

 firm, under the name of Victoria Trickeri. Its chief merits are that it 

 flourishes in a much lower temperature, and flowers very much earlier 

 than the older forms. I have found by experience that it succeeds under 

 the same conditions as the tropical Nymphseas. 



MISCELLANEOUS AQUATICS. 



There are many other aquatic plants which do not belong to the 

 water lily family, but which are both interesting and beautiful, help- 

 ing to make variety in the water garden. Among these is the water 

 hyacinth, with curiously-swollen leaf stems and spikes of lilac-blue 

 flowers. 



Limnocharis Humboldtii, or the water poppy, has flowers of a lemon- 

 yellow color, and somewhat resembles the California poppy. It prefers 

 shallow water. 



Aponogeton Distachyon, or the water hawthorn, though not a showy 

 plant, is desirable on account of the fragrance of its white flowers, and 

 its habit of producing them in winter. 



ENVIRONMENT. 



Before closing, I will refer briefly to another subject, which is prop- 



