CULTUKE OF WATER LILIES, ETC. 131 



NIGHT-BLOOMING WATEB LILIES. 



Unlike our wild N. odorata, the following seven kinds 

 open their flowers at night, beginning about eight o'clock 

 and (excepting N. ampla) remaining expanded until 

 about ten the next morning, each flower opening three 

 nights in succession. They stand on strong foot-stalks 

 ten or twelve inches above the surface of the water. If 

 given the right conditions as to soil, temperature, etc., 

 they will begin to bloom in about forty days after being 

 put out, and continue to be constantly in bloom until 

 cold weather. They all require the same culture and 

 treatment. Their tubers are about the size of a hickory 

 nut or walnut, but make a most astonishing growth in a 

 single season. In spring they should be placed in small 

 pots with good loam or ordinary greenhouse potting soil, 

 and immersed in water kept at eighty degrees to start 

 them into growth. If you are satisfied to have flowers 

 from four to six inches in diameter, then, when warm 

 weather arrives, shift them into large earthen pans or 

 tubs, and place them out of doors, or keep them in a 

 greenhouse, according to the latitude in which you live. 

 If the finest specimens are desired, then, as early in sum- 

 mer as the water becomes warm enough for bathing with 

 comfort, plant them out in a Water Lily tank, in large 

 beds or wooden boxes filled with the compost recommend- 

 ed for aquatics. In the autumn, around the old plant 

 may be found hard, nut-like tubers. These are the best 

 for wintering. The plants ripen and shed their leaves, 

 when they may be placed, several together, in a pot of 

 soil or clean sand, and the pots immersed in water kept 

 at a temperature of about sixty degrees the entire winter. 

 Lower than this may do, but we have found this the 

 safest. Large flowering crowns are valueless for win- 

 tering over, being sure to decay. If you wish to grow 

 them in a pond with a bottom of natural earth, they 



