PLANTS FOR PONDS, POOLS, AND TANKS. 



Aquatic and Bog Plants. 



It is questionable if the majority of either professional or amateur gardeners are 

 sufficiently familiar with aquatic and bog plants. If they realised what delightful 

 resorts could be created with their aid, these moisture-loving plants would receive much 

 more attention than is at present accorded them. Ponds, pools, and tanks may be 

 utilised in the culture of aquatics, and with the aid of the overflow from them, or a 

 supply of water from some other source, beds of peat could be kept sufficiently moist to 

 support a great variety of bog plants. At present the only aquatics we see in the 

 majority of lakes, ponds, or pools are either the common water lily (Nuphar lutea) or 

 the more beautiful white water lily (Nymphsea alba). The first named often spreads 

 to such an extent as to become a nuisance, while it is possible to have even too much of 

 the water lily. If, therefore, a collection of aquatics is formed, the coarser kinds must 

 not be allowed to overgrow their more delicate neighbours. 



The new hybrid Water Lilies raised by M. Latour-Marliac are very beautiful and 

 great acquisitions to a lake, pond, or even a pool or tank. They are perfectly hardy 

 in our climate, and some of them, such as the deep yellow chromatella, increase as 

 rapidly as our native alba. The bright rose-coloured N. Laydekeri rosea does not 

 increase quickly, and with N. pygmsea and X. p. helvola may be grown in a small 

 pool or tank without encroaching upon others. 



Strong growing aquatics, such as the water plantain ( Alisma plantago), the mare's tail 

 (Hippuris vulgaris), nuphars, nymphseas, sagittarias, and Villarsia nymphseoides (Thames 

 lily), ought to have a depth of from 3 to 5 feet of water, and the planting should be 

 done early in the spring. Those kinds may be planted in coarser soil in halves of petro- 

 leum barrels duly burnt out, or even in flat hampers ; the less vigorous, that will 

 be named, in old butter tubs, market gardener's baskets, or receptacles made with 

 galvanised wire netting. That method is the most desirable when the pond is concreted, 

 and if any of the receptacles prove unsightly owing to the clearness of water, stones or 

 burrs can be packed against them, fish approving of this arrangement. For ordinary 

 ponds, the simplest plan is to enclose the roots and soil in old mats or sacking and sink 

 them. In the course of time the material decays and the plants generally spread freely. 



For the shallower water of running brooks and the sides of ponds, the water 

 plantain, the Cape pondweed or water hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyon), flowering 

 rush (Butomus umbellatus), sedge (Carex paniculata), sweet cyperus (Cyperus longus), 



