70 THE WILD GARDEN. 



apart wholly from the plants that natural]}' freipient sucli 

 places or which are usually placed there. With these hardy 

 plants too, a variety of the nobler hardy ferns would thrive, 

 as the Struthiopteris ; the finer types of the Unil)ellate order 

 (Ferula and others) would also come in well liere. We will 

 now consider the plants that naturally belong to such situa- 

 tions so to say. 



Water-plants of northern and temperate regions, associated 

 with those of our own country, add much beauty to a garden 

 if well selected and well grown. A great deal of variety 

 may be added to the margins, and here and there to the sur- 

 face, of ornamental water, by the use of a good collection of 

 hardy aquatics arranged with taste ; but this has not yet 

 been fairly attempted. Usually we see the same monotonous 

 vegetation all round the margin if the soil be licli ; in some 

 cases, where the bottom is of gravel, there is little or no 

 vegetation, but an unbroken ugly line of washed earth be- 

 tween wind and water. In others, water-plants accumulate 

 till they are only an eyesore — not submerged plants like 

 Anacharis, l>ut such as the Water Lilies when matted to- 

 gether. A well-developed plant or gi'ouj) of plants of the 

 queenly Water Lily, with its large leaves and noble flowers, 

 is an object not surpassed by any other in our gardens ; but 

 when it increases and runs over the whole of a piece of water 

 — thickening together and being in consequence weakened — 

 and water-fowl cannot make their way through it, then even 

 this plant loses its charms. No garden water, however, 

 should be without a few fine plants or groups of the Water 

 Lily. Where the bottom does not allow of the free develop- 

 ment of the plant, earth might be accumulated in the spot 



