176 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ AUGL'ST, 
We generally transfer tlie plants from the growing to the flowering quarters 
in January or February, They are moved with balls, and planted closely together. 
This ensures a much better display than any attempt to get flowers from two 
year-old plants, though these will likewise make a good display. But for 
certainty and profusion, regularity and spontaneity of blossoming, there is no 
plant to equal this annual furnishing of the blooming quarters, with fresh, 
, strong flower-showing plants. 
Successional crops do well on the flat. Beyond midsummer and through the 
winter, the flowers are more delicate, longer-stemmed, and last longer if they are 
produced in partial shade. The succession crops also need abundance of water. 
Under the best treatment these late harvests of beauty will not equal the first 
grand displays from February to June. Still, by following these simple instruc¬ 
tions, plants may be had for all purposes of bouquet or love-making throughout 
the year.— D. T. Fish, F.E.H.S. 
AQUATICS.—Chapteh III. 
QUAINT morsel is the common Frog-bit, Ilydrocharis morsus ranee. If 
you will take your stand some fine morning in June beneath the flexile 
branches of that weeping willow by the margin of yon pool, you will see 
a group of small, glossy black-beetles, Gyrimis natator, quickly chasing 
■each other in circling and zig-zag courses amongst the orbicular leaves of a small 
floating plant which has at first sight the aspect of a minor Nym]}licBa: this is the 
Frog-bit. The flowers are white, tripetalous, about half an inch over, and pro¬ 
duced on short peduncles, the males and females on separate plants. The roots 
are feathery, and hang suspended in the water. The leaves rarely exceed two 
inches over, and are nearly circular in outline. The plant produces during the 
summer abundance of runners after the manner of the Strawberry, and these 
“float on the surface, and if detached make separate plants. 
It is just the plant for small tanks or basins, even down to the ordinary fish 
globe, and is a little gem during the summer months. It nevertheless possesses 
curious whims and fancies of its own, and if you look for your Frog-bit some 
early autumnal morning, you will probably come to the conclusion that a 
frog has gobbled it up altogether, for nothing remains visible. Well, what has 
become of it ? If you will put your hand to the bottom of the water you will 
find sundry small oblong greenish buds, about half an inch or so in length, like 
.some nondescript pseudo-chrysalis ; here is the fugitive Frog-bit, in a state of 
hibernation for the winter. At the return of spring the leaves again unfold, and 
it once more floats to the surface for the summer. 
The name of Frog-bit is said to have been ajeplied to it on account of the 
stem always appearing as if bitten off close underneath the leaves, but why the 
frog should be accused of being guilty in this case, the chronicler saith not ; 
probably good old Gerarde might have enlightened us. 
