AN AO&AT/C GARDEN. 



posed at regular intervals or in straight lines, are 

 clipped with the shears, which gives them round 

 leafy heads and a few sparse flowers. 



The owners of both places are ambitious of so- 

 cial advancement, but are unsuccessful in their ef- 

 forts to attain it. Those who accept their invitations 

 are sometimes ill-bred enough to ridicule their host's 

 pretensions. Both these men are of the "know-it- 

 all " order, and would not consult an architect or 



325 



landscape gardener; neither would they listen to 

 advice or suggestions from others, and they are sur- 

 prised that their expenditures do not secure universal 

 admiration for them. Truly may it be said of the 

 Boltonians, "Ye may know them by their works," 

 and if their glory has departed, may other places 

 avoid the evils of their ways and thus escape the 

 consequences thereof. 



John De Wolf. 



AN AQUATIC GARDEN. 



E PRESENT £1 picture on page 

 321 which prettily represents 

 a novel bit of aquatic and 

 landscape gardening. As no 

 landscape is complete without 

 its vista of water, so all flower 

 gardens need a refreshing va- 

 riation in babbling brook or 

 flowing fountain. In this case 

 nature had been so chary in her gifts of soil, water 

 and verdure, where we chose to locate in the Mo- 

 hawk Valley, that the change from sterility to fer- 

 tility has been all the more interesting. Only a 

 stretch of three or four acres of slate and an inch 

 or so of soil formed the foundation of the work. 

 Grading, digging and quarrying, filling with soil, 

 laying out the grounds planting a few trees, so dis- 

 posed as not to obstruct the view, was the work of 

 a few years in a quiet, easy way. But the little 

 lake was not the result of an afterthought. The 

 water supply comes from an artesian well half a 

 mile away on the hill, and the water rights to all 

 springs located there were included in the purchase 

 of the property twenty years ago. All the work 

 could not be done at once, and so the construction 

 of the little lake was left to the last, and it is the 

 crowning glory of the whole. The gently sloping 

 lawn leading down to the water's edge, the trees 

 with green and sturdy plumes fitting so gracefully 

 in the curved outline, or with arched and overhang- 

 ing boughs casting their shadows in the water, form 

 a pretty picture, all the more pleasurable because 

 God did not make the scene, but inspired it. 



The miniature lake is 100 feet long by 60 broad 

 at the eastern end, gradually narrowing to 20 feet 

 at the western. An embankment 6 feet high on 

 the north side is required to keep the water at the 

 desired level. In the broadest part, about 20 feet 

 from the eastern end, was built an island about 15 

 by 20 feet, made of rough masonry below the sur- 



face of the water and above of shelving rocks, 

 placed in about the same position they occupy here- 

 about in nature. This cemented rock-work was 

 covered with rubbish and soil. The shrubbery 

 planted on it serves as a natural shade for hardy 

 cypripediums and other shade-loving plants. A 

 fountain in the center plays during dry weather and 

 keeps the place moist and green at all times. The 

 lake shelves gradually from the edge down to the 

 center, where it is from six to eight feet deep. The 

 bottom is for the most part shale rock, which was 

 covered with a heavy stratum of clay, pounded 

 down ; but millions of angle-worms bored inquisi- 

 tively through this barrier, making it as porous as 

 the nozzle of a watering-pot ; but cobblestones and 

 cement proved too much for them, and our lake is 

 now worm and water-proof. Beds are made in the 

 bottom by laying walls of stone and fiUing the spaces 

 between them with soil ,in which are planted hardy 

 water lilies. On the sides and around the whole 

 circumference indeed, are placed pockets at irregular 

 distances. These are cemented, and some are filled 

 with soil to within a few inches of the surface of 

 the water and others to a level with it, according to 

 the varying needs of water-loving plants. In some 

 of them float islands of water hyacinths, in others 

 flourish stately grasses, bamboos, sagittarias, pretty 

 water poppies, seedlings of tender water lilies with 

 delicate young buds and blooms, irises, and, in fact, 

 everything which likes moisture and stands the sun. 

 Around the island two feet under water is a bed 

 about four feet in width, in which is planted the 

 hardy NynipJiaa alba rosea, the first to show the 

 ruddy blush which comes with early rising. Also 

 N. candidissiina, so strong and sturdy in its cramped 

 quarters that it pushes itself in huge upright bunches 

 against the higher wall, hiding its blossoms between 

 its stately leaves. Pontederia refuses to move 

 away, but nelumbium runs about and intrudes it- 

 self wherever it gets a chance. 



