NovEMBER, 1906 
may run as much as forty feet in a 
season! They should be planted in very 
rich earth, under four to twelve inches of 
water. The bed should be well closed in 
by boards or a wall. Each year give the 
bed a good top-dressing of rotted manure. 
At intervals of three to five years the bed 
should be dug over and the plants reset. 
In autumn each rhizome produces one or 
more long tubers, much the shape and size 
of a banana. These are the parts to trans- 
plant. They are moved in the spring when 
they are starting to grow, say about the 
first of May. Some of the Japanese lotuses 
are less hardy than others, but none stand 
the winters as well as the pure species— 
N. lutea and N. nucifera. 
THE STATELIEST AQUATIC ‘‘GRASS”’ 
It is no wonder that the plant from which 
the ancients made their papyrus figured so 
prominently in Egyptian sculpture, for it is 
the stateliest “grass”? in the world. (It is 
really a sedge.) This Egyptian paper plant 
(Cyperus Papyrus) is known to dealers in 
greenhouse plants as Papyrus Antiquorum. 
It grows with its roots just submerged, 
and sends up stalks four to six feet high, 
with a tuft of fine grass-like leaves a foot 
long at the top of each stalk. It is like a 
huge umbrella-plant with extremely fine 
leaves. From long association it seems to 
belong beside the pink lotus. Being tender, 
it is grown in tubs. In autumn these are 
taken up after the first frost. The plants 
may be kept growing in a warm, well- 
lighted tank, or they may be stored in a 
cool place, provided they are kept wet. 
The papyrus needs no season of rest, and 
produces inconspicuous flowers. 
There is a large kind of umbrella-plant 
{Cyperus alternifolius) which grows like the 
Papyrus and receives the same treatment. 
It is wholly a foliage plant. The common, 
little umbrella-plant of our houses (Cyperus 
alternifolius, var. gracilis) will also do 
equally well in the water garden. It is 
very easily propagated by division of the 
roots, or by planting the “umbrella” part 
of a leaf, with the stem cut off, in wet 
earth or in water. There are several vari- 
eties of this, differing in stature and in 
fineness of leaf. 
From Florida comes another tall plant, 
Thalia divaricata, which deserves notice. 
It has broad, oval leaves a foot long. In 
character they resemble canna leaves, but 
they are borne on long stalks two feet above 
the water. The insignificant flowers come 
in open panicles on tall wand-like stems. 
The plant has a loose, easy, picturesque 
appearance. It grows about six feet tall, 
and will flourish well in a tub the size of a 
half barrel. It is wintered in a warm tank, 
or half dry, in a cool house. 
THE WATER HYACINTHS 
Of the plants necessary for the water 
garden, I should place next to the lotus the 
water hyacinth (Hichhornia speciosa). It 
makes dense beds of dark green foliage 
from which project large spikes of rich violet 
flowers. The plart floats freely on the 
THE GARDEN 
MAGAZINE 
181 
6. Water clover (Marsilea quadrifolia), a hardy, native plant that never flowers, but is worth growing 
surface of the water, or the roots will gladly 
catch in the mud. I have seen it do equally 
well in one inch or in two feet of water. 
The leaves are from three to five inches in 
diameter, on stalks two to eight inches tall. 
The floating plants keep themselves up by 
making a big swollen air-tissue at the base 
of each leaf stalk, while rooted plants have 
taller and more slender stalks. The spikes 
are four to eight inches long, with closely 
set flowers, each two inches or more in 
diameter. The upper petal is larger than 
the others and has a bright yellow eye or 
spot. 
The water hyacinth spreads very rapidly, 
‘but may be easily kept in place by a floating 
wooden pen. Nail together some sticks or 
barrel hoops in the desired size and shape. 
They will float naturally, but should be 
fastened to stone anchors or to stakes driven 
into the bottom of the pond. The plant is 
tender and must be wintered in a warm 
tank. 
THE BRILLIANT YELLOW WATER POPPY 
The next plant which every one should 
have in his water garden is the water poppy 
(Limnocharis Humboldtii). I plant it in 
earth at the edge of the pond, or in a tub 
supported on stones in the deeper water, so 
7. The showiest of aquatic plants outside the water lilies and victoria. 
The so-called “Egyptian” lotus 
