PRESENT-DAY WATER LILIES. 



249 



PEESENT-DAY WATEE LILIES. 



By J. Hudson, V.M.H. 



[Read August 27, 1912; Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., in the Chair.] 



Their Hardiness. — I cannot speak positively, but I think I may 

 safely say that twenty years have scarcely elapsed since the earhest 

 of the many hybrid Water Lilies was first introduced to commerce. 

 Even at the present day many horticultural enthusiasts, well conversant 

 with plants in general, seem not to recognize the fact that the race of 

 hybrids, raised chiefly by the late Monsieur B. Latoue-Marliac and 

 later by his son Monsieur 0. Latour-Marliac, by Monsieur Froebel, 

 of Zurich, and by some American hybridists, are hardy, but such is 

 the case. True, there are several hybrids of Nymphaea stellata (syn. 

 N. coerulea) and of N. zanziharensis that have been put into cultiva- 

 tion that are not hardy. We have yet to raise, or find, a blue Water 

 Lily that will be quite hardy in Great Britain generally. I have 

 been led to make these remarks from the questions put to me 

 by visitors when inspecting the fine collection of Water Lilies upon the 

 open water or lake at Gunnersbury got together by Mr. Leopold de 

 Rothschild, O.V.O., who takes such great interest in them. 



Their Various Uses. — It is surprising that their cultivation has not 

 become more general than it has. We have now, thanks almost 

 entirely to the enterprise o'f the Marliacs, a race of hybrids of great 

 vigour and of undoubted hardiness. They are fit for large sheets of 

 water and may be planted, if needs be, in quite 9 or 10 feet of water. 

 Then, we have others well suited to shallow lakes or pools ; and yet 

 again, others better suited for fountains and shallow basins of water. 



Their Characteristics. — The more we grow Water Lilies, the more 

 we become, so to speak, familiar with them. That they provide us 

 with most attractive flowers during their season is beyond dispute. 

 It was to be expected that in due process of time some features would 

 be evolved that would add to their attractiveness in other directions 

 than in their singularly beautiful flowers. We have now an extended 

 season of flowering, as is to be seen in Nymphaea virginalis, which 

 flowers early and late. The earliest flowers were fully developed 

 early in April, the latest I shall expect to see, as last year, late in 

 October. I have also noted that many of these hybrids remain open 

 later in the afternoon; this is a distinct advantage too. During 

 the past few weeks of dull and often sunless weather there have 

 been numbers of flowers open late in the day; most noticeable in 

 < this respect was N. tuherosa var. Richardsoni, with its pure white 

 blossoms and its multiplicity of somewhat narrow petals. During 

 ^ September I have noted repeatedly that the blossoms remain open 

 even as late as ten o'clock in the evening. It is most interesting 

 to see some of the brightest coloured varieties during a clear moon- 



