IN CALIFORNIA 91 



and the plants kept in a warm greenhouse until 

 June 1st, when they may be planted out in the pond. 

 This is the grandest of all aquatic plants. Leaves 

 are not infrequently six feet across and flowers are 

 one foot, of purest white, later turning to pink. As 

 the plant is an annual, hard to grow from seeds, 

 it will be better to buy young plants from a dealer 

 in aquatics. 



EGYPTIAN LOTUS 



Nelumbiums, popularly known as Egyptian lotus, 

 attain the greatest perfection if planted in the heav- 

 iest adobe soil, fertilized soon after planting out 

 and each spring thereafter with dried blood at the 

 rate of one pound to each ten square feet of surface. 



There are many varieties, but those found to do 

 best in California and now accepted as standards 

 are : Nelumbium album grandiflora, album striatum, 

 Osiris, Pekinensis rubrum plenum, roseum plenum, 

 Shiroman, and speciosum. 



SUITABLE SOIL 



The most suitable soil for water plants in general, 

 with the exception of nelumbiums, is a rich loam 

 and the best rotted horse or cow manure mixed to- 

 gether in equal parts, with the addition of one or 

 one and a half pounds of bone meal to each wheel- 

 barrow load of soil, and we must not omit seeing 

 that the mixing is done thoroughly. Nelumbiums 

 love heavy loam or heavy, greasy clay, well enriched, 

 as do all other water plants. They do not thrive 

 and seldom or never blossom in sand or in soil 

 strongly mixed with sand. 



Lilies which are grown in beds of soil or in natural 

 ponds will be much benefited by an application in 

 spring of dried blood manure, broadcasted on the 

 surface of the water at the rate of one pound to 



