4 INTRODUCTORY. 



but not least, aquatic plants. As Orchids are amongst greenhouse plants, so 

 are aquatics amongst garden flowers, "The Elite." These are comparatively 

 new and of recent introduction, though they have been known to collectors 

 and a few cultivators for a number of years ; but adaptability of them 

 (including the most tender Nymphasas and Victoria regia) for general culture 

 out-of-doors in summer is a realization of recent date. 



No class of plants is more widely distributed than Water Lilies, being indige- 

 nous to the United States, Canada, Central and South America, East and West 

 Indies, Japan, China, Siberia, England, Europe, Austria, Africa, and Aiistralia, 

 each country possessing its own or several species of marked distinction, size and 

 color. No class of plants possesses such diversity of color, including red, 

 white, yellow, and blue, and intermediate shades. The members are no less 

 distinctive in point of fragrance, as nearly all are possessed of an aromatic, 

 delicate, and pleasing odor. They are also very unlike the host of other 

 favorite flowers : some are day-blooming and close at night, others are night- 

 blooming and close in the day. As a rule, the flowers open and close for three 

 days or nights in succession, generally the first day flower closes early, and 

 on the third day after closing it sinks beneath the water and matures seed — 

 if so be that it produce seed at all ! 



There is a great variation in the shape and size of Nymphsea flowers; 

 some are beautifully cup-shaped (see plate of Nymphsea Sturtevantii, facing 

 page 48), others star-shaped with long flat petals, tapering to a point, aS 

 Njnnphasa gracilis (see plate facing page 24), some species have long stiff 

 stems, 12 to 18 inches above water, while others are flexible and the flowers 

 float on the surface of the water. Nympha;as have all leaves floating, but 

 occasionally, when crowded, the leaves stand out of the water. N. tuberosa, 

 one of the strongest growers, soon crowds its own foliage out of the water, 

 and often indeed the rhizomes likewise. 



The introduction of the Victoria regia into England gave a stimulus to 

 acpiaticulture, many tropical Nymphseas had reached England prior to the 

 introduction of the Victoria, also Nelumbiums; their cultivation, however, had 

 never become general. The facts that they could not be grown out-of-doors, 

 and that numerous other tropical plants occupied the space of the greenhouse 

 and conservatory to better advantage, were potent factors in this. 



About fifty years ago the Victoria was first introduced into England, 

 and two years later was grown in a special house erected for it by Mr. Cope, 

 of Philadelphia ; with it other tropical aquatics were introduced and this 



