54 WATER-LILIES 



day blooming water-lilies is really a difficult 

 matter, requiring some skill and a good deal 

 of space. Full-grown plants may be taken up 

 bodily before frost, either in their tubs, or 

 with a big ball of earth, and wintered in a 

 large, warm tank indoors — there they will 

 keep on blooming, with plenty of heat and 

 light; or will merely keep alive in lower 

 temperatures. Plants which have grown 

 large and flowered, will not live over in any 

 other way, excepting Nymphaa flavo-virens 

 and its kin. Usually, therefore, the old 

 plants are left outside to die; but the tubers 

 may be collected. 



The night bloomers are wintered more 

 easily than the tender day bloomers. The 

 plants may be taken from the pond either 

 in their tubs, or with a large ball of earth, in 

 October, and allowed to dry off slowly. In 

 a month's time there should remain from 

 each plant one or two small tubers. Some- 

 times the tuber is smooth and oval; some- 

 times it is of a very irregular shape. It is 

 kept in dry sand as prescribed for the day 



