THE POND 175 



surprised me in their first season by the vigour of 

 their growth. It may of course be the sea-voyage, 

 but I rather think Mr. Henry A. Dreer, of Chestnut 

 Street, Philadelphia, U.S.A., would not agree with 

 me. At any rate, in justice to the finest and most 

 successful grower of all aquatics that I know, he 

 must be named here ; and I strongly advise those 

 who want grand water-lilies to seek his catalogue. 



Nymphaea Laydekeri purpurata is a very free- 

 flowering French hybrid of dazzling carmine or rosy 

 crimson with a golden centre. I note a curious 

 fact about it. The first flowers, which come abund- 

 antly in early May with me, are of a shade quite 

 different to those that follow. They appear the 

 tenderest pink, and suggest something quite fragile 

 and tropical of the lotus type; then, as the season 

 advances, their character changes. This is a hardy 

 water-lily, and you should not be without it. Another 

 less vigorous plant, of a different pink tending to 

 rosy vermilion rather than carmine, is the beautiful 

 N. lucida, with large star-shaped flowers and foliage 

 mottled purple-bronze. N. Odorata Caroliniana is 

 also a true salmon-pink. 



Of yellow water-lilies I have but two, the dainty 

 little N. tetragona Helvola, already named, and the 

 large N. Odorata Sulphurea. They are of the same 

 colour a pale sulphur yellow. The first is too small 

 in all its parts to hold its own among the big species, 

 and should have a little tank to itself with that white 

 pearl, N. tetragona (or Pygmaea), as a companion. 

 N. Sulphurea is hardy, and of large size and most 



