WATER-GARDENING. 
279 
that has neither water supply nor outlet. Such introductions are 
to be avoided in any design. The formal pond must be one in which 
the water can be kept pure and sweet by a sufficient and regular 
supply of water, and a drainage system that will permit of a current 
being passed through the pool as frequently as desired. Lily pools 
that have to be filled by hand or the garden hose are doomed to 
• failure from the start. Those that cannot be emptied easily, at will, 
are little better. The water will be stagnant and filthy, and, unlike 
good gardens, aquatic or otherwise, will be less beautiful the older 
they get. 
I make these remarks in passing lest I should be thought to advo- 
cate the making of holes in the ground, with or without geometrical 
design, lining them with cement, and calling them what they never 
are, and never can be, water-gardens. Too often they are merely 
breeding holes for mosquitos and other pests. 
Do not think, however, that I am deprecating the use of artificial 
water areas in garden schemes. On the contrary, I am one of those 
who believe that no garden is complete that makes no provision for 
the cultivation of aquatic plants. There are, however, some gardens 
that have to remain without it by force of circumstances. Better 
let them remain incomplete than try to force the circumstances and 
merely emphasize the fact that the situation is an impossible one. 
For formal water-gardens the circumstances I should characterize 
as satisfactory are : 
1. A liberal supply of water available, in such a position that it 
can be turned on or off at will. 
2. The pool should form a part of some larger garden scheme, such 
as a main or central feature in a flower garden, be it devoted to roses 
or any other plants. 
3. It should be in such a position that it can be emptied quickly > 
and without any undue expenditure of labour, by an outlet valve. 
4. It should be of sufficient area to achieve its object, viz. the 
cultivation of aquatic plants, and deep enough to meet their require- 
ments. Finally, in design it should be obviously part of the garden, 
not an isolated creation that involves resort to all sorts of extra- 
vagance to justify its existence. 
As an illustration of what not to do, I might mention one I know 
existing within ten miles of this hall. It is a circular pool, constructed 
on ground that is not level, in an expanse of rough grass, under the 
shadow of a group of Beech trees. The result is that it has an ugly 
bank above it on one side, sloping to its massive concrete edge. Below 
it is another bank, still more ugly, falling away from it. It looks more 
like the concrete surround of a disappearing gun platform than any- 
thing else I know. If anything were needed to achieve absolute 
absurdity, it is assured by a feeble squirt rising perpendicularly from 
the centre of the circle. So slender is the column of water that it is 
scarcely perceptible in the dense shade, and with the faintest breeze 
it is blown away and disappears altogether. It remains a lasting 
