150 
AQUARIUMS AND AQUATIC PLANTS. 
liolc, and planting them in the more usual way. 
For smaller pieces of water, the plants had 
better be all in pots, and the pots sunk to the 
bottom, for this acts slightly as a check on the 
very free-growing kinds, and prevents them 
from appropriating too great a portion of the 
area devoted to them, and it also affords a 
more ready means of removing altogether or 
re-arranging the position of any of the plants. 
The only other point of general attention 
which it seems necessary to refer to, is that 
of keeping the vigorous growing kinds from 
appropriating to themselves too much of the 
entire area, to the injury of the smaller and 
more delicate species, which latter are often 
the most beautiful. The entire area should 
not be allowed to become covered entirely 
with plants at any time; a very great portion 
of the effect produced by water-plants being 
referrible to the contrast between the ample 
opaque surface of leaves and the limpid 
transparent surface of the water, as well as 
the reflection — as in a mirror — of the stems 
of the taller kinds. . When it becomes neces- 
sary to thin them, nothing more is required 
than to cut away and remove the stems, and 
roots also, if requisite, with a long hook ; if 
this is properly done, the portions which are 
left will not be injured. 
In the annexed list of hardy aquatic plants, 
or such as may be grown out of doors, a great 
variety of bog plants, such as might be appro- 
priately introduced in wet places near the 
margin of pieces of water, have been neces- 
sarily omitted, on account of its length ; and 
the notice of many others is made as brief as 
possible for the same reason. There will be 
found, however, ample materials for a selec- 
tion ; and no one would require to grow even 
half of those named. 
LIST OF HARDY AQUATICS. 
Acorivs Calanms, (sweet Flag,) is a peren- 
nial, of reed-like habit, growing two feet high, 
and remarkable more for its aromatic pro- 
perties than for its flowers. It has a strong 
aromatic smell, and a warm pungent bitterish 
taste; the root powdered might supply the place 
of foreign spices: it was formerly used to 
strew the floors of houses. It belongs to the 
natural order Orontiacea?. 
Actbiocarpus Damasonium, (common Acti- 
nocarpus,) is a pretty perennial plant, growing 
six or eight inches high ; the leaves grow 
erect, and are cordate-oblong ; the flowers are 
white, produced in loose whorls, on an upright 
stem, from June to August. It is a native 
plant, found in ditches. It is called also 
Alitmia Damasonia ; and belongs to the natu- 
ral order Alrsmaeeas. 
Aldrovanda. vesiculosa, (vesciculose Ald- 
rovanda.) — This is a curious little perennial 
J plant, growing a few inches high, and pro- 
duces white flowers from June to August. 
Native of Italy. It belongs to the natural 
order Droseracese. 
Alisma natans* 
Alisma. (Water-plantain.) — There are seve- 
ral species. A. Plantarjo, (greater,) has acute 
ovate leaves, and white flowers, tinged with 
purple ; produced in June or July : grows a 
foot and a half high ; native of Britain, grow- 
ing in pools. A. lan.ceoh.ta, (spear-leaved,) 
grows about the same size, and is found in 
similar places ; the leaves are lance-shaped, 
and the flowers white, tinged with purple, 
blooming in June and July. A. ranunculoides, 
(ranunculus-like,) is also a native plant, of 
much smaller growth, with narrow leaves, 
and purple flowers, produced in August. 
A. natans (floating,) and A. repens, (creeping,) 
are Welsh plants, the former with handsome 
large white flowers, the latter with flowers 
tinged with purple; they grow only a few 
inches high, and bloom in July and August. 
A. trivialis, (trivial,) and A. parviflora, 
(small-flowered,) grow from a foot to a foot 
and a half high, and bear white flowers from 
June to August ; they are from North Ame- 
rica. A. parnassifolia, (Parnassus-leaved,) 
is from Italy, and requires slight protection ; 
it has white flowers in June and July. They 
are upright growing perennial plants, with 
the flowers in loose whorls, more or less 
branched. They belong to the natural order 
Alismaceas. 
Aponogeton distachyon, (two-spiked Apo- 
nogeton,) is usually recorded in books as a 
green-house plant ; it has been, however, 
proved to be quite hardy at so many different 
places, that we should not be justified in 
omitting it from this list. In one place it 
was continually in flower out of doors, summer 
and winter, except for a week or two at Mid- 
summer. It has linear-oblong floating leaves, 
grows six inches high, and bears a two-forked 
spike of white flowers, from May to July : it 
is a perennial, and a native of the Cape. It 
belongs to the natural order Juncaginaceas. 
Butomns umbellatus, (umbelled Flower- 
ing-rush.) — This is one of the handsomest of 
