70 
June, 1918 
The Great Water Lily. 
By Wii.lard N. Clute in American Botanist. 
Probably the most gigantic leaves in 
the world are those of the great Water 
Lily, Victoria regia , which grows in the 
quiet waters of northern Brazil and 
Guiana. Paul Marcoy, an early trav- 
eller, claims to have measured some 
that were more than twenty-four 
feet in circumference. In temperate 
regions, where the plant may be grown 
in warm pools, the leaves are much 
smaller, but even then may reach a 
diameter of three or four feet. An in- 
teresting peculiarity about them is the 
fact that the edges are turned up for 
several inches all around, the leaves 
thus presenting the appearance of large 
shallow pans. The turned up edges 
serve a practical purpose and keep the 
upper surface of the leaf from getting 
wet. 
Although old leaves are, as so fre- 
quently pictured, quite circular, the 
Slower (Brower 
The group to which Victoria regia 
belongs is not a large one, but it con- 
tains a number of interesting plants. 
The American lotus ( Nelumbium 
luteum ) has much in common with its 
relative of the Amazon. Like it, the 
leaves are circular with the petiole in 
the center and the flowers are often as 
large as a quart bowl. The pink spe- 
cies so often cultivated in parks is the 
Egyptian lotus (N. speciosum) the only 
other member of the genus. 
The Water Lily family ( Nymphaea - 
ceae) has always been something of a 
puzzle to botanists. It is ordinarily 
regarded as a dicotyledon, but some, 
on account of the structure of the 
plants, favor transferring to the mono- 
cotyledons. In most books it holds a 
place low in the scale being assigned 
to the order Ranales which includes, 
besides the type family Ranunculaceae, 
the Magnoliaceae, the Berberidaceae, 
the Calycanthaceae and several others. 
A more than passing resemblance may 
be found in the blossoms of the whole 
first leaves are narrow and elongated, 
the next are heart-shaped like ordinary 
Water Lily leaves and only the older 
ones are peltate with the petiole in the 
center. Even in the old leaves a dis- 
tinct line shows where the lobes of the 
leaves have been joined. Leaves of 
this kind are strong enough to sustain 
the weight of good sized children. In 
their tropical home the great leaves 
form an almost impassable barrier to 
navigation. Tropical birds are said to 
wander over them in large companies 
searching for food. 
The flowers, in keeping with the size 
of the leaves, are often more than four 
feet in circumference. Usually they 
are somewhat smaller but blossoms 
with a diameter of a foot are common. 
The plant rarely flowers in the tem- 
perate zone, but may be induced to do 
so by keeping it at the proper tem- 
perature. It appears to have first 
flowered outside of the tropics at Phila- 
delphia. The blossoms are like those 
of the common Water Lily in shape. 
Outside they are pure white and shade 
to a deep pink within. 
group. This is especially striking in 
the flowers of the Peony, the Man- 
drake, the magnolia, and the calycan- 
thus. 
Reports of severe winter killing have 
reached us and in the Editor’s garden 
damage has resulted which has not 
been before experienced. Our collec- 
tion of roses without artificial protec- 
tion has practically been annihilated 
with the exception of some of the more 
hardy sorts. About half of our Iris 
bed was killed apparently because part 
of it was protected by snow or other- 
wise. There are no cormels left in 
digging last fall which are sprouting 
this spring except in isolated cases 
where specially protected. 
The damage which has resulted is 
largely because of severe freezing in 
early winter before the snow cover 
came to protect vegetation. While 
snows were frequent during the winter, 
yet there was no large body of snow on 
the ground at any one time and the 
long-continued cold weather was al- 
most without precedent. . 
The Everlasting Pea. 
The Sweet Pea, because of its beauty 
and fragrance, appears to fill all that 
could be desired in the way of flower- 
ing Peas, and may account for the ab- 
sence from many gardens of the Ever- 
lasting Pea. There are, however, places 
where this hardy herbaceous Pea could 
be placed and which it could fill to great 
advantage. It is not only hardy and of 
perennial nature, but has, as well, the 
merit of flourishing in almost any soil, 
flowering profusely and in many colors 
the whole season through. It is not a 
vine to set with others in herbaceous 
collections unless it is to form a back- 
ground and be provided with something 
to ramble over. It is a thrifty, strong 
grower, delighting to ramble over rocks, 
stumps of trees, or a trellis where free 
growth can be accorded it. When once 
planted it cares for itself ever after, 
giving flowers in abundance the whole 
Summer long. 
The normal color of the Everlasting 
Pea appears to be pink, but there are 
white, dark purple and other varieties 
of it. Its perpetual flowering is much 
in its favor, and use is found for cut 
flowers of it ; the white one is often 
planted by florists for the sake of its 
flowers, which prove so useful for their 
work in Summer when white flowers 
of this description are so scarce. It is 
unfortunate that this hardy Everlasting 
Pea has no odor. There are records of 
attempts being made to hybridize it 
with the Sweet Pea in order to obtain 
this, but without success. What a prize 
a hardy, sweet scented Everlasting Pea 
would be ! 
This hardy herbaceous Pea climbs 
by its leafy tendrils, the same as the 
Sweet Pea does, so it requires some- 
thing to attach itself to, if height is 
required instead of its merely forming 
a bushy mass resting on the ground. 
A pile of rocks or brush is just what it 
likes to climb about. It is never suited 
when allowed to trail along the ground. 
Though the Everlasting Pea is not 
sweet scented, it has the advantage of 
being perpetual, as well as having 
larger flower clusters than the common 
Sweet Pea. Where once planted it 
grows afresh from the ground every 
Spring, forming its flowers the season 
through. That the flowers are not sweet 
scented is to be regretted. — Florists’ 
Exchange. 
God’s Garden. 
The Lord God planted a garden 
In the first white days of the world. 
And set there an Angel warden. 
In a garment of light unfurled. 
So near to the peace of Heaven, 
The hawk might nest with the wren ; 
For there, in the cool of the even, 
God walked with the first of men. 
And I dream that these garden closes. 
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod. 
And their lilies and bowers of roses. 
Were laid by the hand of God. 
The kiss of the sun for pardon. 
The song of the birds for mirth — 
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden 
Than anywhere else on earth. 
—D. F Gurney. 
