LOTUSES, WATER HYACINTHS 169 



This boggy place begins with the common 

 arrow-leaf {Sagittaria latt folia). As it wades 

 out into deeper water its leaves are as thin as 

 grass, but they get broad and oval where their 

 stalks are not at all submerged. Among the 

 grasses, and the curious horsetails, rise the 

 stalks of great lobelia {L. syphilitica), the 

 cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and 

 their hybrids. What is more brilliant than 

 the spike of the cardinal flower ? And beside 

 them stand the aristocratic family of the 

 flowering ferns (Osmunda) — noble ferns of 

 great size and hardiness. Or perhaps in 

 tropical luxuriance beside our Nymphcea 

 gigantea, the bog is decorated with banana 

 (Musa ensete), the giant rhubarb-Hke leaves of 

 the Gunnera (G. manicata and G. Chilensis), 

 shoots of Paulownia (P. imperialis), cannas 

 and the like. On yonder rocky promontory 

 a ruddy Japanese maple {Acer palmatum, 

 var. atropurpureum) hangs over the water, 

 while in crevices of the rock the dainty 

 maidenhair fern {Adiantum pedatum) is 

 growing. 



