96 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
produce this effect. The treatment of the margins of artificial lakes 
is an important matter. A frequent cause of failure in the attempt 
to avoid formality is the conversion of the margins into a series of 
stiff curves and windings, which, in reality, are as formal as a genuine 
circle or straight line. Bays and promontories should of course occur, 
but a natural meaning should be given to them by leaving the level 
of the promontories considerably higher than that of the bays. In 
other words, the margin of the promontory should run down to the 
water much more steeply than that of the bay. The promontories, 
too, can be emphasised by planting upon them trees and shrubs ; the 
lower-lying bays should be left more open. As regards the edge 
itself, it is better for it to be broken as if it had been worn away by 
the lapping of the water, rather than to have a low sloping surface 
where grass and water meet. At Kew, willows are largely used for 
planting on the banks of the Lake ; the white willow and the weeping 
willow are the most notable. Flowering shrubs and moisture-loving 
herbaceous plants are also used. 
The introduction in recent years of the fine crimson, yellow, and 
white water-lilies of perfect hardiness has added much to the charm 
Water lilies wa ^er-gardening. But their beauty has in some 
places led to their being over-planted. Water in the 
garden is never so effective an ornament as when it is clear and free 
to mirror sky, cloud, and tree. When a pond is used merely as a 
medium for the display of flow r ering aquatics, its interest and beauty 
are of quite another kind. Water-lilies and the like ought never to 
be allowed to interfere with broad effects ; they should never be 
suffered to interrupt the eye over long sweeps of water. Small ponds 
they may be left to cover, but in larger ones their place is in colonies 
near the margin and in the lesser bays and inlets. 
Next to the Lake in importance is the Pond. This piece of wrater 
is situated on the north-east side of the Palm House. Although 
treated in a frankly formal manner — the only manner 
possible in view of its surroundings — it is really of natural 
origin and naturally fed. At the beginning it was part of a shallow 
creek or backwater of the Thames. This, according to old authors, 
appears to have been transformed, either by artificial or natural filling 
up, into a series of ponds or lagoons. In the early years of George 
III.’s reign these lagoons were re-converted into one piece of water 
of considerable size, on which was an island, reached, as pictures 
The Pond. 
