136 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



Pontederia Crassipes Major. The typical P. cras- 

 sipes seldom produces flowers under cultivation; but this 

 variety blooms very freely when grown in water about 

 three inches deep, allowing the lower ends of the roots to 

 enter the soil. The blossoms are of a beautiful lilac 

 rose color, each two inches across, and produced in large 

 upright spikes or trusses like a Hyacinth. 



Ouvirandra Fenestralis (the Lattice-Leaf Plant). 

 Though by no means a new plant, it is extremely rare in 

 this country. The following description is from "Stove 

 and Greenhouse Plants," by B. S. Williams : "It is pop- 

 ularly known as the Lace-Leaf or Lattice-Leaf, and is 

 one of the most singular plants in existence. The leaves 

 are from six to eighteen inches in length, and from two 

 to four inches in breadth ; oblong, with an obtuse apex, 

 and spreading out horizontally beneath the surface of the 

 water. They are of a dark olive green color, and consist 

 of a strong midrib and veins that would be called the 

 primary nerves of an ordinary leaf, and thus present the 

 appearance of a beautiful piece of net-work, or of a skel- 

 etonized leaf ; indeed, it is a veritable living skeleton. 

 The flowers are inconspicuous." Native of Madagascar. 

 It should be grown in a pan filled with a mixture of good 

 loam and leaf mold or fine peat. The pan should be 

 placed in a tub of water, and great care taken to keep 

 the water sweet and the leaves of the plant clean. It is 

 generally kept in the greenhouse in summer, but in this 

 latitude we have found it to do well in the open air. It 

 may be wintered in an ordinary greenhouse temperature. 

 It is a scarce plant, and will always cost from three to five 

 dollars each. 



Myriophyllum Proserpinacoides. This is grown on 

 account of the exquisite beauty of its foliage. It prefers 

 shallow water, sending its stems creeping along on the 

 surface, forming a mass of lovely soft green color. The 

 leaves are arranged in whorls along the stem, and are as 



