272 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



spikes of whitish flowers. This, however, with me at 

 least, lives so far under water, and flowers so sparsely, 

 that it really has no value for the garden. Azolla caro- 

 liniana has the habit and the leafage of Alisma natcms, 

 without the brilliant flowers. Trapa nutans, the water- 

 Chestnut of Italian lakes, is another interesting aquatic, 

 not perhaps absolutely hardy, with queer thorny edible 

 nuts, contorted and devilish in outline. Then there are 

 our own river-buttercups, Ranunculus aquatilis, in many 

 varieties, with fine ferny foliage and abundance of big 

 white blossoms. This, however, is so ramping a water-weed 

 that it should never be admitted to any pond that is not 

 measured by the mile. Much as the same applies to 

 a cousin of the Gentians, Villarsia nymphaeoeides, with 

 leaves exactly like a wee Nymphaea, and solitary flowers, 

 large, fluffy yellow cups, like golden, single-flowered 

 Menyantlies. This is a fearful invader, and has choked 

 up every piece of water into which it was ever admitted. 

 On the other hand, its near, and prettier relation, Limnan- 

 themum villarsioeides, is not trustworthy in point of 

 rusticity. 



If you crave for curiosities, in some wet spongy place 

 of the inner bog, you might grow the Sarracenias and 

 Darlingtonia californica. Both Sarracenia purpurea and 

 Darlingtonia californica are hardy, if well treated, but 

 the Pitcher-plants require a good deal of attention, and, 

 to my taste, are not altogether worthy of it, though their 

 deep swelling jugs of bronze, emerald, and purple are 

 strange enough for anything, and only surpassed by their 

 pendulous flowers, like enormous blind Poppies designed 

 by Aubrey Beardsley, and carried out in lard, coloured 

 with various shades of red, green, and yellow. These odd 

 rare creatures require a great deal of moisture, a sheltered 

 warm position, and very perfect drainage, if they are to 

 be permanent. 



