AUGUST 201 



its petals with an admixture of foreign blood. They 

 are undoubtedly attractive, these new hybrids, the 

 blossoms varying from pale rose to crimson, sulphur 

 colour to flaming orange. Where there is plenty of 

 room it is certainly worth while giving the best varieties 

 a bay to spread in, and nobody has realised their beauty 

 till he has seen them in an ample, natural sheet of 

 water. I received several kinds in the autumn of 1893 

 from M. Marliac's establishment at Temple-sur-Lot ; 

 they were kept in large pots sunk in tubs in a cool 

 house till the spring, when the tubs were put in the 

 open air, and in the autumn of 1894 they were sunk, 

 pots and all, in about three feet of water in the lake. 

 The memorable frost of that winter the most severe 

 we are likely ever to experience in this country 

 put them to the test of hardiness. Some succumbed 

 partly, I fancy, because they were sunk in too deep 

 water but the rest are flourishing and spreading fast. 

 Some of these new varieties prolong the flowering 

 season long after the common white water-lily is past. 



A great deal may be done much has been done in 

 many places to supplement our native aquatic and 

 waterside herbage. No lover of the country but looks 

 forward to the month of the iris our native yellow 

 flag. I saw lately its American counterpart, Iris vir- 

 ginica, used with charming effect as a contrast to it in 

 Mr. Chamberlain's garden at Highbury. This also is a 

 water-loving species, and spreads as freely as our own ; 

 but its flowers, instead of golden, are violet and purple. 

 Would that somebody with leisure and means were 



