aao The Wild Garden^ 



It is true that by following the directions of the 

 garden books, or even the best examples that we 

 see of water in our public gardens, nothing to boast 

 of can be done, but nevertheless, by a tasteful, selec- 

 tion of really good and hardy water plants, and above 

 all, a judicious disposition of them, a great deal of 

 exquisite beauty may be produced. Hitherto this 

 has been very badly performed by the designers of 

 pieces of water, or by those who plant the margins 

 of them. Usually you see the same monotonous 

 vegetation all round the margin if the soil be rich ; 

 in some cases, where the bottom is of gravel, there 

 is little or no vegetation, but an unbroken ugly line 

 of washed earth between wind and water. In others 

 aquatic plants accumulate until they are a nuisance 

 and an eyesore ; and I do not simply mean the be- 

 low-surface weeds, like the Anacharis, but the White 

 Lily when it gets too profuse. Now a well developed 

 plant, or group of plants, of the queenly Water 

 Lily, floating its large leaves and noble flowers, is 

 an object not surpassed by any other plant in our 

 gardens ; but when it increases and runs over the 

 whole or a large part of a piece of water, and 

 thickens together, and the fowl cannot make their 

 way through in consequence, then even the queen 

 of British water plants becomes a nuisance. No 



