The members of this order are all aquatic or marsh plants. It is an order of the grandest interest and beauty. All the world has rung with the praise and fame of the regal Victoria, the noblest of Water-Lilies, and the sparklingly beautiful species and varieties of the tender Nymphaeas are plants of the loveliest type. Although an attempt or two has been made, and attended with some success, to cultivate the Victoria in the open air in tanks of water artificially heated, we must not claim the wonderful plant as a hardy subject in this country; and it is scarcely possible, even though, for the purposes of sensation, it may appear desirable, to cram the representatives of the genera of every clime into the cramped limits of our little but glorious isle. Our efforts in making such a universal omnium, gatherum of plants would be only less ridiculous and dangerous than the like on the part of the zoologists with animals. It would undoubtedly be sensational to have the lion or the tiger pricking up one's senses by a growl or a spring from the hedge by the wayside, but the beauty or the comfort of the thing would be questionable, at least to mortals of ordinary nerve.

We have no need, however, to attempt naturalising the lions of the vegetation of the tropics, even though by artifice we could assure ourselves of success ; there are plenty of the tamer, but not less beautiful, plants of temperate and northern climes, which, without either much trouble or expense, may be had for the various purposes that may be entertained in out-of-doors gardening in this country. Nuphar, scarcely less beautiful than Nymphaea, furnishes four or five hardy species of aquatics, and Nymphaea gives us about the same number, which may fairly vie with the most admired of the tropical species and varieties as seen in our stoves. These hardy Water-Lilies are very ornamental objects in lakes, ponds, and gently-running streams, and their culture is the most simple. They are easily propagated by division in spring as growth commences, the only care necessary being to secure the plants to the position they are to occupy by some kind of anchor till they take root and fix themselves, which they quickly do. Seeds also may be used as soon as they are ripe; or, if the seeds have to be transported a distance, they should be put in small bottles of water, and kept cool.

They are usually sown by being cast into the water where they are to grow, but a more certain way is to sow them in shallow pans or pots, and gently drop them into the water after they have been well wetted to prevent displacement of the seeds. The only care afterwards necessary is the prevention of injury by waterfowls or floods till the plants have made some growth, when they will care for themselves. No pricking off nor transplanting from the seed-pan is necessary in the method described; they quickly spread away from it, and root and extend freely in all directions.