WATER GARDENS 115 



or pearl within their bronzed cups, they float on 

 the dimpling surface. In the shallower water near 

 the banks the blue American pickerel weed (Ponte- 

 deria cordata) may find a place, and some of the 

 fine single and double forms of arrow-head (Sagit- 

 taria), with which the rare British villarsia with 

 small floating water-lily-like leaves and fringed 

 yellow flowers slightly raised above them might 

 be associated. On the banks of ornamental waters 

 such as these many foreign plants are in good 

 keeping ; massive leafage like that of gunnera and 

 the umbrella saxifrage, in contrast with the beau- 

 tiful water irises of Japan (I. Icevigata), and in 

 some favoured positions bamboos, will give just 

 the characteristic water-side touch. Here, too, 

 rhododendrons and azaleas may come down almost 

 to the water's edge, and fine effects may be made 

 with osmunda and other large-growing ferns. 



It is much more difficult to deal picturesquely 

 with the purely artificial tank basin, for it may 

 easily be pretentious and out of taste. In an old 

 garden, with high walls of time-worn red brick, 

 mellowed by the sunshine and storms of a hun- 

 dred seasons and clothed with climbing roses and 

 magnolia, one may come upon a large oblong 

 brick tank entirely in keeping with its surround- 

 ings and perfect in its simplicity. There are green 

 cushions of mosses and little creeping plants in 

 the chinks of the weathered brickwork, and tall 

 tufts of lady fern and fountains of hart's tongue 

 have grown up around it to break the straight 

 lines of the masonry. On all four sides steps go 

 down to the dipping places, and there one may 



