188 
PARK AND CEMETERI 
on his toes to see better, but does not give way to curi- 
osity and excitement, as his young companion. He 
stands erect, haughty, a savage sovereign. The young 
chief waves a branch in token of good will to the 
THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN. 
Hermon A. MacNeil, Sc. 
coming white men. The group is erected in honor cf 
the coming Lewis and Clark Exposition, which opens 
in Portland next spring. 
Bureau Bros., Phialdelphia, cast the bronze. 
GARDEN PLANTS THEIR GEOGRAPHY— CVIX. 
Alismales, Continued. 
Hydroclcis is in 3 or 4 species, from 
the southern parts of tropical Amer- 
ica. The yellow “water poppy,” often 
kept in northern gardens for summer 
embellishment, is H. Commersonii. 
Limnocharis has also 3 or 4 species 
of yellow-flowered South American 
aquatics. 
Aponogeton has 23 species in tem- 
perate and tropical Asia, Africa, Mad- 
agascar and Australia. The “lace 
plant” of Madagascar is A. fenestra- 
lis I suppose, but better known as 
Ouvirandra. It is a submerged plant 
which, I think, Mr. Ellis stated, in his 
work on Madagascar, grew in sandv- 
bottomed running streams which often 
ran dry when the rains ceased. The 
water temperature should not be much below 70 de- 
grees Fab. A. distachyon is South African, with 
pretty white, spotted, forked spikes, of deliciously 
fragrant flowers. It varies a little and, I am told, 
has been known to survive mild winters in southern 
Virginia in about 2 feet of water. 
Potamogcton are the “pond weeds” in 50 species. 
The Hydrocharideae are included in the group by 
many systematists. They are often submerged, have 
inferior ovaries, often are unisexual and polinate be- 
neath or at the surface of the water. The “tape grass,” 
or Vallismeria, grown in tropical aquariums in Europe, 
is a very interesting example. It is found northward 
in the States to Minnesota. Hydrocharis Morsus — 
rame — is another plant of great interest to the curious. 
The whole plant floats and the whitish flowers are de- 
cidedly ornamental, but fugitive. Its life history is this 
way : A bud closely wrapped in scaly leaves rests 
during winter on the mud at the bottom of still, shallow 
water in Europe. When spring warmth arrives, the 
cells fill with air, the bud becomes buoyant and r' c 
to the surface of the water, the scales separate, little 
green leaves appear, roots hang down a short distance 
but do not touch bottom. These plants then propagate 
rapidly by means of thready runners, so that each 
parent often has eight or ten young ones around it. The 
strong ones flower, but rarely seed ; instead, as autumn 
approaches, shoots ending in scaly buds appear ; before 
winter these are detached, to sink again to the mud, 
and lie dormant until spring, with its warmth, once 
more wakes them to the life of another generation. 
It does not always do to throw away the mud in which 
aquatics grow. 
Stratiotes aloides is another curious floating, white- 
flowered little aquatic, found in Europe and the Altai 
region in Asia, which also sinks after maturity. 
It would be interesting and convenient to have a 
representation of this little group growing together. 
The most of them are herbarium subjects, and if a 
way could be found, through some such plant as 
Hvdrothrix verticillaris, to bring the Podostemal 
tribes here, that group name could be dropped from 
garden lists where it alone suggests no gardening use. 
The Hvdrothrix is a little Brazilian sub-aquatic ( ? 
annual), variously referred to Podostemese and Ponte- 
APONOGETON DISTACHYON. 
dereae, and probably no more anomalous than the 
parasitic Triurideae. If the compilers of the Kew In- 
dex had only marked the useful and showy plants of 
the world distinctively, what a convenience it would 
have been. ' Gardeners must raise their own scientists ! 
Tames MacPherson. 
LEAF OF 
APONOGETON 
FENESTRALIS. 
