Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-04
WATER GARDENING.
Edward W. Breed Lectures on Subject
Not Generally Appreciated.

Thursday afternoon an interesting es-
say was read before the Horticultural
Society by Edward w. Breed of CHn-
ton upon water gardening This sub
ject, which has to great extent been
neglected by the gardeners hereabouts,
is attracting great attention from var
ious horticultursts in other parts of
our land.
- Mr.. Breed opened his lecture by stat
ing that water gardening was one Of
the most ancient of horticultural sub
1ects, having been a favorite method of
the ancient Egyptians. The lotus aqua
tic being the sacred flower of the Egyp-
tians, they took great care to perpetuate
it. No Egyptian temple was built with
out columns ornamented with the
graceful flower, bud and leaf of the
lotus This flower was Worshipped not
only in Egypt, but in India, Japan, Chi
ma and Thibet. Although the flower is
not now found in it's earliest home,
Egypt, we find it still growing in Japan.
Homer mentions it, as does Herodotus,
and number of others of the ancient
writer's.
The leaves of the sacred lotus, when
a drop of dew or water falls upon them,
change to a silver color in the light,
hence the Hindoo proverb, ''The good
and virtuous man in his wanderings
through this vale of sorrow and evil, is
not polluted by the sins he comes in
contact with. They are turned to silver
by the purity of his life, as the water
drop on the sacred lotus leaf"
The culture of the water lily was be-
gun in England in 1885, but very little
progress was made however, in its
cultivation until 1884, when a Mr.. Stur-
tevant Of Bordentown, New Jersey, hav-
ing disagreeable, swampy portion of
of land in his possession, concluded that
it would be better to raise a crop of the
beautiful rather than the constantly In
creaslng swarmS of mosquitoes and
frogs, and began the hybridization of
pond lilies.
He succeeded after many trials in pro-
ducing bright, rosy-red lily, which at
traoted a great deal of attention at the
time. Since that time many naturally
ugly ponds have been made productive
of beauty, and many artificial ponds
have been constructed in which to raise
this queen among flowers.
In securing the location for pond
Mr. Breed declared the first thing to be
desired was a sunshiny spot and water
free from salt, lime or iron. Still water
was best. Some apparatus should be
constructed so that the depth of the
of the plants requiring a greater depth
of water than others. A rich soil should
be secured. if not naturally then ar
tificially. In relation to this last he
gave several formulae to be used.
While there are over sixty varieties of
the water lily, which is of all aquatics
the most desirable for water gardening,
there are nevertheless a number of
other plans which may be used to great
advantage umbrella grasses, the
papyrus, water 'hyacinth, which last,
owing to its rapid growth, is less de-
srable than many others-water poppy
and host of others.
At the close of Mr.. Breeds lecture a
vote of thanks was unanimously given
him for his excellent paper. Discussion
followed, and questions more or less
relevant to the subject were asked.
j. G. Lethe, who has been an ex-
tensive traveller in the southern and
middle states, gave some "reminiscences
of his travels, which proved entertain-
ing and instructive.
The meeting adjourned to next We'd
nesday and Thursday, when the an
nual meeting of the Fruit Growers AS
sociation will be held.