Water Gardens Under Glass 
Victoria regia, a most interesting giant Nymphaea 
although care should be taken to use receptacles 
of sufficient size. 
The ambitious water gardener, supposing space to 
be available, will hardly rest content unless he try his 
hand at growing that giant of all the water lilies, 
Victoria regia. It is useless to think of cultivating 
this plant in a tank less than twenty-five feet square 
as the leaves in a fine specimen are as much as six or 
seven feet across. It is best to construct in the tank 
a brick place for Victoria regia as no tub of ordinary 
dimensions will be large enough 
for the purpose. If sufficient 
heat can be provided the plant 
is easily grown, but the tem¬ 
perature of the water must 
range as high as eighty degrees 
or even more if the specimen 
is to display its huge flowers of 
a pretty rose color. Gener¬ 
ally grown as an annual, fresh 
plants of the Victoria lily must 
be raised each year and the 
seed will only germinate in 
great heat. A plant concern¬ 
ing which there has been much 
controversy amongst botanists 
is Victoria trickeri, now gener¬ 
ally regarded as a variety of 
regia. This water lily is con¬ 
siderably smaller in every re¬ 
spect than the type, but has 
the point in its favor that it is 
much hardier; indeed, at¬ 
tempts have been made to 
grow it out-of-doors but 
without much success except 
in very mild localities. 
The number of plants suit¬ 
able for growth on the margin 
of an indoor water garden is 
almost legion, and it will not 
be possible to give more than a 
passingMeference. 1 hese 
should generally be placed in 
pots or tubs, the receptacles 
to be submerged to a suitable 
depth. Some kinds, it will 
be found, do best if the surface 
of the soil is just above the 
water level, and the height of 
the pots may be adjusted by 
means of bricks. A most in¬ 
teresting class of plants is that 
grouped together under the 
genus nelumbium, popularly 
called water beans. To this 
class belongs the famous Egyp¬ 
tian lotus regarded for ages 
as the emblem of fertility, and even to this day in 
parts of the East held in a considerable amount of 
reverence. Most of the species are to be reckoned 
as half hardy in habit, and practically all are exceed¬ 
ingly decorative from a floral point of view, whilst not 
a few bear edible nuts. Nelumbiums should be 
allowed a soil composed of loam and rotten manure 
and the roots ought not to be more than one foot below 
the surface. Some of the species of Cyperus or 
sedges are very ornamental for the borders of a 
For the culture of Victoria regia it is well to construct a special place as shown, 
clump in the background is Egyptian papyrus 
The 
49 
