50 WATER GARDENS 



stand in one element, some in the other, and both overlap, as they 

 do in nature. Willows grow on land, but their expression is 

 watery; rushes grow in water, but they are makers of land. Would 

 you rather have no vegetation on the banks? Or would you 

 rather see a great colony of cardinal flowers reflected in the water; 

 Lilium superbum growing eight feet high, and bearing thirty flowers 

 on a stem; a thousand Japanese iris, with flowers nine inches across, 

 and of many colours; tall yellow iris flashing in the sun; countless 

 spires of purple loosestrife pointing to the sky; banks of violets 

 and carpets of forget-me-nots? 



The most striking plant for marginal planting is the Gunnera, 

 which often has leaves six feet across. I heard one man boast of 

 Gunnera leaves eleven feet across ! (See plate 97.) This is the 

 only important water-garden effect we cannot have. The nearest 

 approach to it for us is that of the ornamental rhubarbs, some of 

 which have leaves three or four feet across, and are very striking 

 when in flower. 



The ideas here proposed need not conflict at all with any com- 

 mercial or pleasant ways of using water, e. g., for fishing, house 

 boats, growing water-cress, trout culture, or ornamental fowl of any 

 kind. On the contrary, no landscape gardening is any good that 

 does not provide for use first and beauty afterward. Mr. 

 Robinson complains about the " wretched duck ponds" which, he 

 says, disfigure England; but are we not more guilty? Why is it 

 that so many Americans who love animals care so little for plants? 

 I do not find this so in England. Yet for every kind of fish or 

 water-fowl that we keep in these palpably artificial ponds there is 

 some plant that should be naturalized in the water or on the mar- 

 gin, because it will cut down the cost of maintenance by furnishing 

 natural food or shelter. A few colonies of plants founded on the 



