28o IV A TE R 



som, prompted the thought and guided the work. 

 Native hardy water lilies and the English sister, Nym- 

 pliaa alba, candidisiiiia, with other hardy aquatic plants, 

 are planted out : while the tender ones in all their 

 varieties are placed in it in the summer months. I 

 think that tender water lilies are not grown in any place 

 out of doors in as cold a latitude as this, yet with most 

 delightful results. — Mrs. James Arkell, Montgomery 

 Co., N. y, 



The Egyptian Lotus. — Is the Egyptian lotus 

 ihim speciosum) hardy ? This question has often been 

 asked, and there seems to be a general opinion that it is 

 not. Well, that depends in a great measure upon how 

 it is grown. Many years ago, when Thomas Hogg 

 lived in Japan, he sent as many as thirty varieties of the 

 lotus to Isaac Buchanan, These were planted in a pool 

 of water in the lower part of his nursery at Astoria, 

 Long Island. The first winter, everyone of them per- 

 ished ; the veteran florist always attributed his loss to a 

 stream of water running through the pool all winter. 

 One of the first to grow this beautiful aquatic success- 

 fully in the neighborhood of New York was L. K 

 Meyer, of Clifton, Staten Island. He had two round 

 tanks built of stone and cement, about thirteen feet in 

 diameter and three feet deep. In these the lotuses were 

 planted ; they flourished from the start. They were 

 never covered ; the water was left in the tanks all win- 

 ter, which never froze deep enough to reach the roots, 

 as no running water was turned on while the roots were 

 dormant. In summer water was supplied from a foun- 

 tain in the middle of each tank. As soon as the sun 

 warmed the water in spring they begun to grow vigor- 

 ously, and the same plants bloomed freely year after 

 year. 



Another successful grower of this plant, and one who 

 has shown the public how easily it can be grown, is Mr. 

 Sturtevant, of Bordentown, New Jersey. This, and 

 other aquatics, have been e.xhibited at most of the 

 flower shows for several years by this grower, who has 

 succeeded in acclimatizing it in one of the swamps in his 

 neighborhood, where the water is deep enough to pre- 

 vent the mud freezing in winter. In Central Park, and 

 some of the smaller parks in the city of New York, the 

 lotus, nymphseas, and other aquatics are planted in large 

 tubs and plunged in the fountain basins for the summer; 



L I L I ES. 



and in autumn they are removed to the greenhouse 

 sheds, or some other shelter for the winter. These 

 flower well, but neither the leaves nor the flowers are so 

 fine as when planted out in the bottom of the tanks. 



About ten years ago I received some Neln7nbinin speci- 

 osum seeds from Japan. These were sown in small pots 

 (after removing a portion of the hard husk of the seeds 

 with a file) and plunged in warm water on the pipes in 

 the grapery, where they soon germinated. When large 

 enough they were shifted into larger pots, and kept grow- 

 ing in tepid water. When old enough, a tank was made 

 by excavating the earth (in a sunny spot) about three 

 feet deep, twenty feet long, by twelve in width, the bot- 

 tom and sides built with brick laid in cement, with 

 about one foot of rich earth spread over the bottom, 

 the plants put in, and water gradually run in as the 

 plants grew. The second summer they grew amazingly, 

 and by the third year they had crowded out all the other 

 aquatics that were planted along the margin of the tank. 

 It then became necessary to enlarge the tank to allow 

 space for the plants to develop. But it was worth all 

 the trouble to see the luxuriant growth when allowed 

 room enough to have their own way ; with leaves over 

 two feet across, on stems from four to six feet high, the 

 flower stems towering above them bearing their large 

 rosy pink flowers. The flowers open three days in suc- 

 cession, becoming paler each day, and closing in the 

 afternoon, the petals then falling off leave the pictur- 

 esque seed-pod, such as we see sculptured on the oldest 

 Egyptian hieroglyphics. I believe these same plants 

 are still flourishing, of course with occasional thinning 

 out and top-dressing before the water is turned on in 

 spring. 



In my own practice I have always drawn off the water 

 on the approach of winter, covering the roots with leaves, 

 salt-hay, or any other rubbish that would keep out the 

 frost. By this treatment they have always come out all 

 right in spring, and were ready to grow as soon as 

 the weather became warm. 



If half the care is taken with this splendid aquatic as 

 is given to many plants of inferior merit, there seems to 

 be no doubt of its hardiness in this latitude, as will be 

 seen from the facts stated above, and it will do just as well 

 in water as out, if frost is kept from the roots. — Samuel 

 Henshaw, Conncctuut . 



