327 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Avgust 30, 1859. 
K “That will not do,” objects the gardener, “with reference to the 
little lawn to which you pass from this.” “Cover that,” said 
the poet. “ You will then,” replied the gardener, “ have an un- ' 
( pleasant contrast with the foliage surrounding it.” Mrs. Hemans 
once took up her abode for some weeks with Wordsworth at 
Rydal Mount, and was so charmed with the country around, 
that she was induced to take a cottage called Dove's Nest, which 
overlooked the lake of Windermere. But tourists and idlers so 
haunted her retreat, and so worried her for autographs and album 
contributions, that she was obliged to make her escape. Her 
little cottage and garden in the village of Wavertree, near Liver¬ 
pool, seem to have met the fate which has befallen so many of 
the residences of the poets. “ Mrs. Hemans’s little flower- 
garden ” (says a late visitor) “ was no more—but rank grass and 
weeds sprang up luxuriously; many of the windows were broken ; 
the entrance-gate was off its hinges : the Vine in front of the 
house trailed along the ground, and a board, with ‘ This house to 
let ’ upon it, was nailed on the door. I entered the deserted 
garden and looked into the little parlour—once so full of taste 
and elegance; it was gloomy and cheerless. The paper was 
spotted with damp, and spiders had built their webs in the 
corner. As I mused on the uncertainty of human life, I exclaimed 
with the eloquent Burke,—‘What shadow's we are, and what 
shadows we pursue 1’ ” Pope too had communicated to his gar¬ 
dener at Twickenham some of his own taste. The man, long 
after his master’s death, in reference to the training of the 
branches of plants, used to talk of their being made to hang 
“ something poetical." All true poets delight in gardens. The 
truest that ever lived spent his latter days at New Place, in 
Stratford-upon-Avon. lie had a spacious and beautiful garden. 
Charles Knight tells us that “ the Avon washed its banks; and 
within its enclosures it had its sunny terraces and green lawns, 
its pleached alleys and Honeysuckle bowers.” In this garden 
Shakspeare planted with his own hands his celebrated Mulberry' 
tree. It was a noble specimen of the black Mulberry, introduced 
into England in 1548. In 1605 James I. issued a royal edict 
recommending the cultivation of silkw'orms, and offering packets 
of Mulberry seeds to those amongst his subjects who were will¬ 
ing to sow them. Shakspeare’s tree was planted in 1G09.— 
(Ibid.) 
Ouvirandba fenestbalis.— The most rare and choice botani¬ 
cal acquisition which I made during this visit was the beautiful 
aquatic plant Ouvirandra fenestralis, which Sir W. J. Hooker 
designates “ one of the most curious of Nature’s vegetable pro¬ 
ductions,” and which he has since described as the Water Yam 
or Lace Leaf. Dr. Lindley had drawn my attention to this and 
other Madagascar plants before my departure, and had shown me 
a drawing of it in the work of “ Du Petit Thouars.” At Mauri¬ 
tius, M. Bojer, a distinguished naturalist, who had formerly 
resided in Madagascar, very frankly and kindly informed me of 
the localities in which the plants I was anxious to obtain were 
most likely to be found. From the work of “Du Petit Thouars” 
in M. Bojer’s possession, I copied the Ouvirandra in a size rather 
larger than the engraving ; and, by exhibiting this to the natives, 
at length found one man w'ho knew where it grew. His master, 
who had shown me many acts of kindness, allowed him to go and 
search for it, and after two or three days he told me he had found 
it growing in a stream, but that there were so many crocodiles in 
the water that he could not get it. The late rains, it was said, 
had made them more numerous at that particular place. At 
length he brought me a fine lot of plants in excellent condition, 
and I was glad to reward him for his trouble, and to take them 
immediately under my own charge. The natives describe this 
plant as growing in running streams. The root, or rhizome, is 
about the size of a man’s thumb in thickness, and six or nine 
inches long, often branching in different directions, like the roots 
of the Ginger or Turmeric, but in one continuous growth, not a 
succession of distinct formations attached at the termination of 
one and the commencement of another. The root is composed 
of a white fleshy substance apparently without large or tough 
fibres, and is covered with a somewhat thick light brown skin. I 
was informed that it also grew' in places which were dry at certain 
seasons of the year; that the leaves then died down, but the root, 
buried in the mud, retained its vitality, and, when the water 
returned, fresh leaves burst forth. The natives spoke of it as 
tenacious of life, and said, that wherever the earth around even 
the smallest portion of it remained moist, that portion would put 
forth leaves when again covered with water. This plant is not 
only extremely curious, but also very valuable to the natives, who, 
at certain seasons of the year, gather it as an article of food, 
—the fleshy root, when cooked, yielding a farinaceous substance 
resembling the Yam. Hence its native name, Ouvirandrano, 
literally, Yam of the water ,—ouvi in the Malagasy and Poly¬ 
nesian languages signifying Yam, and ratio in the former and 
some of the latter signifying water. 
The Ouvirandra is not only a rare and curious, but a singularly 
beautiful plant, both in structure and colour. From the several 
crowns of the branching root, growing often a foot or more deep 
in the water, a number of graceful leaves, nine or ten inches long, 
and two or three inches wide, spread out horizontally just 
beneath the surface of the water. The flower-stalks rise from the 
centre of the leaves, and the branching or forked flower is 
curious; but the structure of the leaf is peculiarly so, and 
seems like a living fibrous skeleton rather than an entire leaf. 
The longitudinal fibres extend in curved lines along its entire 
length, and are united by thread-like fibres or veins crossing 
them at right angles from side to side, at a short distance from 
each other. The whole leaf looks as if composed of fine tendrils, 
wrought after a most regular pattern, so as to resemble a piece of 
bright green lace or open needlework. Each leaf rises from the 
crown on the root like a short delicate-looking pale green or 
yellow fibre, gradually unfolding its feathery-looking sides, and 
increasing its size as it spreads beneath the water. The leaves in 
their several stages of growth pass through almost every grada¬ 
tion of colour, from a pale yellow to a dark olive green, becoming 
brown or even black before they finally decay ; air-bubbles of 
considerable size frequently appearing under the full-formed and 
healthy leaves. 
It is scarcely possible to imagine any object of the kind more 
attractive and beautiful than a full-grown specimen of this plant, 
with its dark green leaves forming the limit of a circle two or 
three feet, in diameter, and in the transparent water within that 
circle presenting leaves in every stage of development, both as to 
colour and size. Nor is it the least curious to notice that these 
slender and fragile structures, apparently not more substantial 
than the gossamer, and flexible as a feather, sti’l possess a tenacity' 
and wiriness which allow the delicate leaf to be raised by the 
hand to the surface of the water without injury. 
I succeeded in conveying this plant safely to the Mauritius, 
where it was preserved for more than a year, and seemed to 
thrive best in running w'ater at a temperature of about 74°. I 
was happy to present specimens of it to M. Bojer, and to Mr. 
Duncan, the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Pam- 
plemouses. At the Cape of Good Hope, Mr. McGibbon kindly 
took charge of it diming my absence on a journey of nearly' 
five months into the interior, and I willingly left a plant in the 
botanic gardens there. Since my return to England, I ha«ve had 
much satisfaction in presenting specimens of this rare plant to 
the Royal Gardens at Kew, to the gardens of the Horticultural 
Society at Chiswick, and to those at Regent’s Park, and to the 
Crystal Palace. 
The plants at these places, especially those at Kew, appear to 
thrive remarkably well, the leaves being equal in size and beauty 
to any which I saw in Madagascar. Among a few comparatively 
small plants which I grew in a glass milkpan, with but a 
small depth of earth, one flowered during the past summer. 
The seed ripened quickly, and fell upon the earth at the bottom 
of the pan, where it soon germinated; and in the same pan with 
the parent plant seven or eight young seedling plants are growing 
with pale green leaves half an inch long. The length of the leaf¬ 
stalk seems to be regulated by' the depth of the. water; when this 
is shallow these are short; but when the water is deep the stalks 
are long, as represented by the single leaf on the side. The leaves 
are alwaysjust beneath the surface, but the flower-stem rises above 
the water,—( Ellis's Madagascar.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Seedling scarlet Geraniums (Constant Subscriber ).—The best way 
with seedling scarlet Geraniums which have not flowered is to take u few 
cuttings of each in September, and to let the old plants be killed by the 
frost. Besides saving room, the plants from the cuttings will flower a 
month earlier than the old plants; and as one out of a thousand of such 
seedlings is not better than the parents, they are not worth the trouble of 
wintering. We seldom save more than two cuttings of such seedlings, and 
we keep them in the same small pots till planting-out time. 
Vine-borders, &c. (Charles ).—Before this meets your eye you will have 
seen some answers on Vine-borders. ], Concrete the bottom, if you can ; 
put nine inches of open rouble above it, communicating with a proper 
drain. 2. Use good fresh loam for your border, with some dozen of 
bushels of old bones, a few loads of lime rubbish, and a little leaf mould for 
starting them in. 3. Make the border as proposed inside and out, but 
plant inside. 4. If your Vines are to be four or live feet apart, and grown 
