1898.] ESSAYS. 119 



occupy. When of sufficient size, pot singly in two and one- 

 half inch pots, then later repot into four inch, not allowing 

 them at any time to become stunted. They will require green- 

 house or hot-bed protection until planted out doors in June. 

 All varieties of lilies do not produce seed. Nature therefore 

 resorts to other methods for reproduction. The hardy ones of 

 this class are propagated by dividing the roots as the new 

 growths start in the spring. 



The tropical sorts of this class produce side shoots which 

 form tubers at the end of the season's growth. On the approach 

 of frost the roots are taken inside, the foliage trimmed back 

 allowing the tubers to remain on the main root packed in moist 

 sand under the greenhouse benches and kept at a temperature of 

 sixty degrees. In the spring these tubers can be potted and 

 grown until time for planting in the pond, but my advice would 

 be to let somebody else try to winter these tender varieties, 

 as about the only thing you can depend on is that they will rot. 

 Young plants are easily obtained in the spring from men who 

 have facilities for wintering stock plants, and they offer them at 

 a much lower figure than it costs individuals to care for them. 



Among all aquatics the Victoria is truly queen, and al- 

 though it may not become our lot to cultivate it no address 

 on Water Gardening would be complete without considering 

 her majesty. It is a native of South America and was discov- 

 ered by a traveller nearly a century ago, called there water 

 maize. It is a plant with gigantic leaves five to six feet across, 

 with a flat broad rim five inches wide of a lighter green above 

 and crimson beneath, with beautiful flowers changing from 

 white to pink giving forth a sweet fragrance. 



Seed was brought from Bolivia in 1846 in wet clay. The 

 first flower was produced in England in 1849, which was pre- 

 sented to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in whose honor the plant 

 was named. 



The peculiar formation of the leaf gives it great buoyancy, 

 and leaves have been grown in St. Louis and many of the parks 

 that would hold two hundred and fifty pounds weight. The 

 flowers are from fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and they 



