192 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the plants. Where the natural soil is a light loam all these preparations 

 are unnecessary, water-loving plants will nourish in it when thoroughly 

 saturated, and only small portions need be excavated for the peat 

 lovers. 



It must be remembered that if properly nourished many plants grow 

 to be veritable giants in suitable wet situations. Iris orientalis and 

 I. aurea will grow from seven to eight feet high. Lobelia fulgens, L. 

 splendens and L. cardinalis varieties, will grow over five feet high ; Spiraea 

 kamtschatica and its beautiful rosy variety will grow eight to ten feet high. 

 Senecio japonicus makes a very stately and handsome plant, and the fine 

 varieties of Iris laevigata make grand clumps. Dwarf plants such as Do- 

 decatheon, Trollius, Primula pulverulenta, P. siJckimensis, Orchis latifolia 

 grow out of all recognition. For this good food is necessary, and I have 

 found nothing to equal clean cow manure. It should be applied every 

 spring when doing up the beds. 



A note of failures is generally a useful addition to any list of plants 

 for special purposes, and I therefore give a list of plants which are 

 frequently recommended for water and bog gardens in the open air, but 

 which I have found repeatedly die out when planted in water, or in a bog, 

 liable to be submerged for any considerable length of time. Arundo 

 Donax, Miscanthus japonicus, Thalia dealbata, Myriophyllum proserpina- 

 coides, Cypripedium spectabile, Gentiana asclepiadea, Valisneria spiralis, 

 Hydrocleys Gommersonii (or Limnocharis Humboldtii), Phormium tenax, 

 Liatris spicata, Meconopsis, Spigelia marylandica, Sarracenias, Darling- 

 tonias, Bamboos. Several of these are, however, perfectly hardy and will 

 live and thrive in damp situations, not liable to be submerged for any 

 length of time. 



It would take too long now to go in detail into indoor water-plants 

 having given more time than I intended to the hardy section. There is, 

 however, the same fascination about them, and they are even more 

 interesting and quite as varied. I do not advise general cultivation of 

 tropical species of Nymphaea for those who are not early risers, or who 

 are not able to visit an aquatic plant house at dusk, as the majority of 

 them only expand their flowers between 7 p.m. and 11 a.m. The flowers 

 are closed during the day and frequently retire under the water. There is, 

 however, a section which can be cultivated in an unheated house, in tubs 

 or in shallow tanks, the flowers of which remain open all day and close at 

 night. They are chiefly blue in colour, and are very attractive. Amongst 

 the best of them are N. gigantea and its fine variety, N. gigantea Hud- 

 soni, N. stellata and its varieties coerulea and scutifolia, N. zanzibarensis 

 and its varieties, N. ' Wm. Stone,' and N. pulcherrima. The habit of 

 growth of these exotic species of Nymphaea is quite different from that 

 of our native species. They have instead of a rhizome a hard coated 

 tuber to which they die down in winter. These tubers may be taken up 

 about the end of October, rolled up in balls of mud, or in some old 

 sphagnum, and kept in quite a small space, provided they are safe from 

 rats. 



