94 THE GARDEN BEAUTIFUL 



of the lilies, but the common water snail is the great- 

 est enemy of aquatic plants. The goldfish assist very 

 materially in destroying these larvae and snails, but 

 we have found a complete preventive of injury to 

 the foliage from this source by keeping in the tank, 

 in addition to the goldfish, some of the common spot- 

 ted sunfish. They are carnivorous in habit and very 

 alert and active. Moreover, it is impossible for mos- 

 quitoes to breed in a water lily basin in which an 

 abundance of the above named fish, or those of sim- 

 ilar habit, are kept. Thus one objection to locating 

 these tanks or ponds in the vicinity of the dwelling- 

 house is removed. 



WATER-SIDE IRIS 



The apogon, or beardless iris, is a very interesting 

 section and contains some very beautiful species and 

 varieties. Some of these are as easy of culture as 

 those in the bearded section, while some require more 

 moisture and different treatment. Many are excel- 

 lent for planting around lily ponds, in tubs, etc., par- 

 ticularly the taller growing varieties, where the 

 roots receive plenty of moisture during the grow- 

 ing and blooming period. Like nearly all of the 

 genus, when the plants are established they can 

 be allowed to dry out for a time during the sum- 

 mer months in fact, most of them are the better 

 for it which is an excellent feature, as it is a time 

 when our gardening enthusiasm wanes. A few in 

 this section do remarkably well with no more mois- 

 ture than our bearded irises receive. 



