BROOK-SIDE, WATER-SIDE, AND BOG GARDENS. 75 
desirable plant to cultivate. It frequently succeeds in water 
not choked by weeds or foulness, and wherever there are 
springs that tend to keep the water a little warmer than usual 
it seems to thrive in any part of the country. The Water 
Ranunculuses, which sheet over our pools in spring and early 
summer with such silvery beauty, are not worth an attempt 
at cultivation, so rambling are they; and the same applies to 
not a few other things of interest. Orontium aquaticum is a 
scarce and handsome aquatic for a choice collection, and as 
The Cape Pond Weed in an English ditch in winter. 
beautiful as any is the Water Violet (Hottonia palustris). It 
occurs most frequently in the eastern and central districts of 
England and Ireland. The best example of it that I have 
seen was on an expanse of soft mud near Lea Bridge, in Essex, 
where it covered the surface with a sheet of dark fresh green, 
and must have looked better in that position than when in 
water, though doubtless the place was occasionally flooded. 
A suitable companion for the Marsh Marigold (Caltha) and 
its varieties is the very large and showy Ranunculus Lingua, 
which grows in rich ground to a height of three feet or more. 
