358 
The Garden Magazine, August, 1921 
the gathering dusk and patrol its borders in hopes of picking up 
a frog or two. They are also not averse to poaching from the 
fishes with which the pool may have been stocked. 
T HE reasons for placing fish here are two in number. 
There is their aesthetic value, and also their economic value 
as destroyers of mosquito larvae or wrigglers. The second is 
perhaps the more important, but also the more complicated, and 
will be discussed later. 
Looked at from the aesthetic standpoint, fish contribute two 
things, life and color. The colors of many small fresh water 
species are exquisite as viewed close by in an aquarium, but 
these same fish are too small to make any sort of show in an 
outdoor pool. There is no native species which will compare in 
this aspect with the goldfish or the European pearl roach and 
which is, at the same time, so suitable for pond culture. 
The adult pearl roach is pearly whitish with red fins. The 
bright color of the goldfish, covering as it does the entire 
upper parts, has sufficient mass to make a fine show, en- 
hanced by this fish’s habit of “basking” at the surface. For 
outdoor purposes the fancy breeds of goldfish are not desirable, 
being not only more expensive but somewhat more delicate than 
the ordinary kind. If it is possible to get good colored, outdoor 
stock from some pond, so much the better. 
Both these species are as hardy as any native fish. In fact, 
the goldfish has been introduced into natural fresh waters 
and is now abundant in a great number of the ponds and sluggish 
streams throughout the land. 
The pearl roach was introduced in the ponds of New York 
City so long ago that there is no record of the event. Many 
years later, when brought to the attention of students of Ameri- 
can fishes, they did not at first recognize what it was, though 
obviously of no native species then known to science. 
The matter of hardiness may or may not be of importance 
in the fish which will be placed in a garden pool, for in many 
cases water will be left in the pool only during the summer 
months, and fish will have to be taken out for the winter in any 
event. The problem of keeping them over winter will have to 
be solved variously according to available facilities. 
If there is a pond near by of moderate area and with a muddy 
bottom, it is easy to return the hardy species to it in the fall and 
net out a sufficient number in the spring to stock the pool. 1 
A greenhouse adjacent to the garden is an ideal place 
to keep the fishes, whether hardy or not. When under cover 
they have to be fed. 
An outdoor pool will support a sufficient number of fishes 
through the summer without artificial feeding. It should, 
however, contain a certain amount of plant life or they will not 
do well left to their own devices. When Water-lilies are grown 
therein these furnish sufficient shade, shelter, etc. Otherwise it 
will be necessary to install aquatic plants. The varieties 
grown in aquaria are good, and others found in ponds, but un- 
suitable for aquaria, will serve the purpose as well.* 
The fish eat insects which are continually falling in the water, 
aquatic insects or insect larvae, and such species as the gold- 
fish probably a certain amount of vegetable matter also.f 
I N NATURE, fresh waters, however small, contain many 
diverse kinds of life forming a delicate balance, wherein no 
one kind is likely to attain undue abundance. When man inter- 
feres with the balance of nature or introduces artificial condi- 
tions, here as elsewhere, he is likely to make trouble for himself. 
A pool of still water in the garden is an excellent place for the 
mosquito to lay her eggs, and if there are no little fishes therein 
*Water plants the upper leaves and stems of which lie partially submerged 
at the surface, should be avoided, and any floating tangle of plant life or trash 
removed from the pool. Mosquito larvae can live in the wetness over such places 
and no fish can reach them there. 
fThe pearl roach feeds more or less on water plants, however, and care should 
be had in introducing it where valuable plants are grown. Dr. C. H. Townsend 
of the New York Aquarium, in a recent letter, says of it: — ‘‘This fish is a 
vegetable feeder and cannot be maintained in a pool or pond containing plant 
life. It will destroy indiscriminately all plants, water-lilies etc.” 
MARGINAL PLANTING BOTH DESIRABLE AND PLEASING 
Mattie Edwards Hewitt , Photo. 
This type of planting has much to recommend it quite aside from the intrinsic beauty of the materials used, leaving an open surface 
for reflected glimpses of cloud and sunshine and free from the floating greenery so encouraging to the mosquito at breeding time. 
Iris, Ivy, and other things of lowly habit suitably fringe this small pool in the garden of Mrs. Ernest Iselin, at New Rochelle, N. Y. 
