i?4 MY GARDEN 



circumstances limit one to six or eight, I would 

 venture to advise the following : 



Nymphaea Marliacea Albida is a strong, very 

 free-flowering, water-lily of purest white with rich 

 green foliage. Few are hardier or handsomer. N. 

 Marliacea Carnea resembles Albida in every par- 

 ticular, but the outer petals are delicately touched 

 with pale rose. These two hybrids, raised by Mon- 

 sieur Latour-Marliac, may be heartily commended 

 for their strength and beauty. Next, I would suggest 

 that grand American water-lily, N. " James Brydon." 

 This came to me from Philadelphia, and immediately 

 set to work with true Yankee pluck and energy. It 

 is a gorgeous carmine-crimson, with a heart of red- 

 gold and very distinctive rounded petals. I keep it 

 in a little tank alone, for its vigour is gigantic. It 

 was in flower six weeks after its journey across the 

 Atlantic; and "William Doogue," another splendid 

 and massive pink water-lily raised in the United 

 States, came with it, and blossomed in two months 

 from planting. 



I may say here that, in my experience, hardy 

 nymphaeas raised in America are stronger and 

 healthier and every way better than those to be 

 got in England or from France. This may seem 

 a bold thing to declare, but I have proved the fact 

 to my own satisfaction not only with the two lilies 

 above named, which are, perhaps, unusually vigorous 

 hybrids, but also with other familiar species, such 

 as the little dainty N. tetragona Helvola and the 

 great familiar N. odorata. These things have all 



