PARK AND CEA\ETEF^Y. 
±24 
LOTUS BED. 
growth, and he is firm in the opinion that disregard 
of this rule is the cause of frequent failures with the 
stately Egyptian Lotus. As the Nelumbiuni is 
hardy it is left in position after once established, 
but this was a new bed. The photograph was taken 
in September and shows the plants flowering nicely, 
and they did so until frost cut them off. To the left 
of the Lotuses a large group of the pretty rush, 
Scirpus variegata, shows its habit and horizontal 
marking distinctly, and on the higher ground be- 
yond is a nice example of the planting that wedded 
the water garden to the lawns. First will be no- 
ticed the big leaves of the Tara plant with immense 
ediblestems. They looklike Caladiums. Just behind 
them rises a Dragon tree, Dracena Draco, nine feet 
high and planted out. To the left of it is an old 
cedar stump, its branches sawed off about one foot 
from the trunk, that is turned into a green and flow- 
ery column by a luxuriant drapery of Ipomea pal- 
mata, (formerly paniculata). To the right of the 
Dragon tree stands another leafy column made with 
Ipomea Setosa. Directly behind this stump stands 
a good specimen of the Cedar of Lebanon, and just 
in front of it, (although a bed of Cannas intervenes), 
is a group of the ornamental grass, Pennisetum 
longistylum, and more of the same shows back of 
the American agave that stands beyond the right of 
the Lotus bed. Above and beyond this last clump 
is a Dracena indivisa, and at the extreme right of 
the planting, beyond the last clump of Pennisetum 
the broader leaves of another grass, Panicum plica- 
turn vittatum, is seen. It is customary here to face 
Canna beds with these two grasses planted in alter- 
nation because both are handsome, and when the 
Pennisetum is past its prime it is cut off and the 
Panicum is then so well grown that it droops over 
and fills the entire space until frost. It is a know- 
ledge of such combinations that enables Park Sup- 
erintendents to furnish continuously presentable ex- 
hibits from one end of the season to the other. 
“A bit ot the Victoria Pool” shows in the fore- 
ground a leaf that measured six feet and ten inches 
in diameter, including the six inch upturned rim. 
To say that the writer stood on this leaf and was 
floated as buoyantly as in a boat does not stand for 
much, (particularly to my acquaintances,) but I al- 
so looked on while a man who said he weighed one 
hundred and ninety-eight pounds (and looked it) 
stepped cautiously on and — was floated just as suc- 
cessfully. A mat was used to protect the delicate 
surface of the leaf and on it a slight frame of laths 
to equally distribute the weight, and on the frame, 
in the middle of the leaf, was placed a small board 
for one to stand on in making these novel tests. 
On the farther bank in the same picture is a bed 
of Cannas edged with young Agaves and near by 
stands a large A. Americana in a tub, and a nice 
Phoenix Balm plunged on the lawn. In front of 
the last is a clump of Cyperiis alternifolius or Um- 
brella grass growing in the water, and along the 
margin of the pool a floating mass of blue water 
hyacinths shows numerous flower spikes. 
The tender plants used in this design are win- 
tered in a cool brick store house the end of which 
shows in the Lotus picture. Up to this time Tower 
Grove Park has been supplied with extensive dis- 
plays of summer bedding with no plant house — noth- 
ing but this store house. Now, however, plant 
houses are to be built and inadequate facilities will 
no longer hamper the genial and efficient Superin- 
tendent. But with plant houses ad infinitain he 
never can make a prettier display than the Water 
Garden of eighteen hundred and ninety-five. 
Fanny Copley Seavey. 
Garden Plants, — Their Geography. V. 
POLYGALALES, 
THE PITTOSPORUM, POLYGALA, AND VOCHYSIA .ALLIANCE. 
This alliance embraces four tribes, thirty-seven 
genera, and 7 17 species of often handsome plants 
which are rarely trees, but more commonly ever- 
green shrubs or climbers, and in temperate regions 
perennial or annual herbs. They are found 
in both hemispheres north and south, but a 
large proportion of the handsomest are from the 
south temperate zone, while Vochysese come exclu- 
sively from the warm~parts of America. 
No polypetalous plants are so sparsely repre- 
sehted in our gardens as these, for although we 
have thirty-nine or forty plants, which are natives 
of North America, they are mostly of humble char- 
acter. 
Pittosporum has fifty-five species, distributed 
in Africa, sub-tropical Asia, the Pacific Islands, 
Australia, and New Zealand. P. Tobira and its 
variegated variety are well known in our gardens. 
