WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 255 



without cement, by natural flooding from a brook, streamlet or river. 

 If the water supply is abundant and continuous, it matters little 

 whether a portion of the water is wasted by percolating the sides of 

 the pond, but when only a small supply can be had, the bottom and 

 sides of the pond must be either concreted or puddled with clay. It 

 often happens that when the excavations for a pond are completed, 

 the bottom is found to consist of impervious clay, but the sides 

 consist of ordinary soil, which would allow a large portion of the 

 water to waste. In such cases the best way out of the difficulty is 

 the cutting of a narrow trench, say 18 inches wide, to a depth a little 

 beyond the surface of the natural clay subsoil. This trench, which 

 should skirt the whole pond at some little distance from the actual 



Riverside plants in front of an old manor Levens. 



edge of the water, is then filled with clay " puddle " till just above 

 the water-line and forms an effective remedy against waste, while 

 the water-soaked soil between the trench and the actual outline of 

 the pond forms an excellent home for all kinds of marsh plants of 

 the bolder type. The outline of a pond is of the utmost importance. 

 Regular curves of circles or ovals are utterly out of place and look 

 ridiculous in a landscape with irregular and naturally undulating 

 ground. In order to be effective, the outline of the pond must not 

 only be irregular, but it must be also in accordance with the laws of 

 Nature, and as in most cases the natural pond or lake is merely an 

 expanded stream or river, we must look to the shore-lines of the 

 latter for guidance in the forming of artificial ponds. In a natural 

 stream the curves are mostly due to the water meeting with some 



