29G 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



afterwards I received a memorandum informing me that the 

 package had been found, and asking me what should be done 

 with it. Feeling certain that the plants would be dead, I 

 ordered them to be sent back by slow train ; but on their arrival 

 I was utterly astonished to see them in good order and covered 

 with shoots, and very little the worse for being so long boxed up. 

 To show the advantage of the endurance of "Water-lilies I ought to 

 add that I have thrown waste plants on to the earth surround- 

 ing the ponds, and have found their roots still quite sound after 

 having lain six months on the open ground. 



Cultivators of aquatic plants have often shown great anxiety 

 about the supposed havoc caused by water-rats and mussels ; also 

 by different kinds of insects, fish, &c. I think that their fears have 

 been exaggerated, because for my part I have only had to 

 complain seriously of the ravages committed by two kinds of 

 larvae, the one black and the other white, produced by certain 

 small yellowish-white butterflies which deposit their eggs on the 

 floating leaves. These larva?, at first almost invisible, grow to 

 about the thickness of a wheat straw, and devour the leaves of 

 the Lilies during the night ; also those of the Aponogeton, 

 Limnocharis, kc. They are very clever in hiding themselves 

 during the day, laying fragments of the leaves on their bodies 

 and covering themselves up with pieces of Lemna palustris or 

 Azolla. Their devastation would be serious if it could not be 

 easily stopped by pouring on the surface of the water some drops 

 of a mixture of three-quarters colza oil to one-quarter of paraffin, 

 a sufficient dose to poison and destroy them without hurting the 

 plants. The climatic conditions of England are without doubt 

 inimical to the existence of these voracious larva? ; but, in any 

 case, I have pointed out the infallible means of suppressing 

 them. 



I should not bring this dissertation on Water-lilies to an 

 end without bestowing a few words on the splendid section of the 

 Cyanea, or blue Water-lilies. It is greatly to be regretted that 

 hitherto all attempts to cross them with their hardy conveners of 

 the northern hemisphere have so far failed. It would be a great 

 triumph to add to the already sumptuous collection some hardy 

 hybrids of a sky-blue colour with a delightful perfume. They 

 are very variable, as from the seed oi X. zanribarcnsis one can 

 obtain the most beautiful colourings of deep blue, tender blue, 



