920 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



growing plant, with long, thick, floating stems, and at each 

 joint roots are emitted. The shining green leaves are borne 

 erect on short, stout petioles, and are very variable in size 

 and shape. To prevent this plant from encroaching on other 

 things, it will be necessary to occasionally ' shorten back the 

 stems, replanting the young growths. As it roots freely, this 

 operation affects the plant but little, either in growth or in 

 flowering, as the scapes are produced from the axils of the leaves 

 towards the extremity of the stem. E. Martiana (E. tricolor) 

 is an erect-growing, handsome, free-flowering plant of annual 

 duration. It is of moderate growth, with cordate, sharply-pointed, 

 shining green leaves, on long petioles. The flowers, which are 



arranged on a com- 

 pound spike, are about 

 tin. in diameter, the 

 three lower segments 

 being of a purplish 

 colour, and the three 

 upper ones deep blue, 

 having a two lobed 

 yellowish blotch in the 

 centre, margined with 

 white. Height about 

 2 ft. E. speciosa (E. cras- 

 stpes, Water -Hyacinth) 

 (Fig. 609) is a hand- 

 some, curious, and in- 

 teresting plant. Unlike 

 the other species, when 

 under cultivation the 

 flowers are seldom pro- 

 duced, but, nevertheless, 

 they are equally as 

 beautiful ; these are 

 large, of a pretty, soft 

 rosy-lilac, the upper and 

 largest segments being 

 suffused in the centre 

 with rosy-purple, with 

 linear markings of 

 violet, displaying a con- 

 spicuous oval-shaped blotch of pale chrome-yellow. It increases 

 rapidly, and is very variable in its habit of growth. When treated 

 strictly as a floating Aquatic, the petioles are short and very 

 much inflated; but when the roots are in soil this inflation 

 diminishes, the petioles assuming an almost cylindrical shape and 

 growing to a much greater length. The shining, deep-green 

 leaves are also very variable, both in size and in shape. In order 



Fig. 609. — ElCHHORNIA SPECIOSA. 



