120 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



last two nights. A variety from Brazil, called Randii, is of a 

 more robust habit and better adapted to out-door culture. The 

 flowers are- white, changing to deep crimson. Mr. Sturtevant, 

 of New Jersey, was probably the first to cultivate this variety 

 here. Mr. Tricker, in 1894, procured a new variety which 

 proves to possess greater blooming qualities than the preceding, 

 and the originator claims that it is destined to supplant its pre- 

 decessors and make the possibility of Victoria growing of no 

 greater difficulty than that of the tender lilies. In its native 

 country the variety is a perennial, but it is better treated here 

 as an annual. It is propagated from seeds that are sown in Feb- 

 ruary or March and flower the following July and August. It 

 requires one hundred and fifty cubic feet of soil per plant, and 

 the water should be two feet deep. In our climate, when grown 

 out of doors, it is necessary to heat the water to ninety degrees 

 in the early summer, and for this purpose a boiler is placed in a 

 low situation and pipes are run through the pond. The boiler- 

 house should be hidden by rocks, shrubbery and vines. It is 

 also advisable to provide a glass covering until the weather is 

 sufficiently warm. Great care is then needed in properly hard- 

 ening them ofi". Victorias have been grown in this State by Mr. 

 Goodell, at Dwight, near Amherst, without heat outside, by 

 using sashes to cover his pond early in the season, and he has 

 succeeded in having them bloom for nearly a month. Mr. Bry- 

 den, when he was at Yarmouthport, grew Victorias very suc- 

 cessfully, and at one time had a plant which produced fourteen 

 leaves and an abundance of flowers. The expenses incidental to 

 its successful culture render it a plant not for the millions, but 

 for those who have a million or more. 



Among the aquatics, the Nelumbium or Lotus, in all its Ori- 

 ental splendor, is a stately plant, and deserves a prominent 

 position in the Water Garden unless it can be favored with a 

 pond by itself. Lotus ponds are very common in Japan. It is 

 valued by the Chinese, who highly appreciate it, for in North 

 China it is cultivated in every available wet ditch, marsh or 

 swamp. Its seeds and fleshy rhizomes are edible and highly 

 esteemed in Chinese cookery. Its flowers are used for decora- 



