WATER GARDENS 117 



circular tubs. Water can be carried again by pipes to 

 these various receptacles. Should rain-water at any time 

 be scarce, it will be necessary to fall back upon the 

 permanent supply tap, and conduct water from it by means 

 of an indiarubber hose to the water-tanks. Another 

 simple and inexpensive way of filling a tank occasionally 

 when it gets low is to have a funnel-shaped receptacle 

 placed below the permanent water-supply tap and in 

 connection with it run an underground pipe to the small 

 terraces. The tap can then be turned on and allowed to 

 run freely through the funnel whenever the tanks are 

 depleted. Such a garden, with water-lilies floating at the 

 surface of the small tank, and pretty flowers, like yellow 

 alyssum, white pinks, or many coloured pansies, dipping 

 their little faces in the water, will give as much pleasure 

 to the owner as the lovely sunk garden at Kensington 

 Palace, with all its accessories of pleached limes, lead vases, 

 stone piers, wrought-iron gates, and ornamental lead- work 

 water-cisterns, gives to the public. All sorts of little 

 experiments in reflection can be tried. For instance, tall 

 tulips planted in groups of two dozen or so close to the 

 water will look lovely, and give a sort of Dutch appearance. 

 Then, too, it is said that Myosotis palustris if planted 

 near water is always in flower. It is not great size that 

 tells in an aquatic garden, but the personality of the man 

 who selects the plants and arranges them. This is 

 evident from the success of Mr. Burbidge in his com- 

 paratively small one at Trinity College, Dublin, where 

 the happy arrangement of tall clumps of bamboos to break 

 up ground near lower plants made it not only of interest 

 botanically but also artistically beautiful. We find that 

 these ideas of small tank gardens go back to the time of 

 the Romans. The peristyle of the Vestal Palace, which 

 measured about 180 feet by 48 feet, contained two small 

 marble-edged, rather oblong water-tanks. A rather 



