Part I. HARD Y AQUA TIC PLANTS. 69 



are grown. It is in all respects one of the most serviceable of 

 hardy water-plants. 



Not rare — growing, in fact, in nearly all districts of Britain — 

 but exquisitely beautiful and singular, is the Buckbean or Marsh 

 Trefoil {Menyanthes trifoliata), with its flowers elegantly and 

 singularly fringed on the inside with white filaments, and the 

 round unopened buds blushing on the top with a rosy red like 

 that of an apple-blossoniv In early summer, when seen trailing 

 in the soft ground near the margin of a stream, this plant 

 has more charms for me than any other marsh-plant. It will 

 grow in a bog or any moist place, or by the margin of 

 any water. Though a rather common native plant, it is not 

 half sufficiently grown in garden waters ; but, indeed, these 

 are invariably neglected. Generally peoples' minds are so 

 much fixed upon bedding out that they care little or nothing 

 for the permanent embellishment of the place with fine. hardy 

 subjects, and nothing at all for the waterside. For grace 

 and singularity combined, you cannot possibly surpass Equi- 

 setum Telmateia, which, in deep soil, in shady and sheltered 

 places near water, often grows several feet high ; the long, 

 close-set, slender branches depending from each whorl in a 

 singularly graceful manner. It is grown in many parts of 

 England, but does not penetrate far into Scotland, and may be 

 seen finely developed against the wall near the fernery in the 

 Oxford Botanic Garden : I doubt not that many who see it 

 there conclude it to be a foreigner, so distinct is it from our 

 ordinary native vegetation. For a bold and picturesque plant 

 on the margin of water nothing equals the great Water Dock 

 {Rumex HydrolapathuTii), which is rather generally dispersed 

 over the British Isles ; it has leaves quite subtropical in aspect 

 and size, becoming of a lurid red in the autumn. It forms a 

 grand mass of fohage on rich muddy banks. The Cats-tails 

 {Typhd) must not be omitted, but they should not be allowed to 

 run everywhere. The narrow-leaved one (T. angustifolid) is 

 more graceful than the common one {T. latifolid). Carex pen- 

 dula is excellent for the margins of water, its elegant drooping 

 spikes being quite distinct in their way. It is rather common 

 in England, more so than Carex pseudo-cyperus, which grows 

 well in a foot or two of water or on the margin of a muddy 

 pond. Carex paniculata forms a strong and thick stem, some- 

 times three or four feet high, somewhat like a tree-fern, and with 



