. The Book of gardening; a handbook of horticulture. Gardening; Horticulture. 920 THE BOOK OF GARDENING. growing plant, with long, thick, floating stems, and at each joint roots are emitted. The shining green leaves are borne erect on short, stout petioles, and are very variable in size and shape. To prevent this plant from encroaching on other things, it will be necessary to occasionally' shorten back the stems, replanting the young growths. As it roots freely, this operation affects the plant but little, either in growth or in flowering, as the scapes are produced from the axils of the leave
. The Book of gardening; a handbook of horticulture. Gardening; Horticulture. 920 THE BOOK OF GARDENING. growing plant, with long, thick, floating stems, and at each joint roots are emitted. The shining green leaves are borne erect on short, stout petioles, and are very variable in size and shape. To prevent this plant from encroaching on other things, it will be necessary to occasionally' shorten back the stems, replanting the young growths. As it roots freely, this operation affects the plant but little, either in growth or in flowering, as the scapes are produced from the axils of the leaves towards the extremity of the stem. E. Martiana (E. tricolor) is an erect-growing, handsome, free-flowering plant of annual duration. It is of moderate growth, with cordate, sharply-pointed, shining green leaves, on long petioles. The flowers, which are arranged on a com- pound spike, are about tin. in diameter, the three lower segments being of a purplish colour, and the three upper ones deep blue, having a two lobed yellowish blotch in the centre, margined with white. Height about 2 ft. E. speciosa (E. cras- stpes, Water-Hyacinth) (Fig. 609) is a hand- some, curious, and in- teresting plant. Unlike the other species, when under cultivation the flowers are seldom pro- duced, but, nevertheless, they are equally as beautiful ; these are large, of a pretty, soft rosy-lilac, the upper and largest segments being suffused in the centre with rosy-purple, with linear markings of violet, displaying a con- spicuous oval-shaped blotch of pale chrome-yellow. It increases rapidly, and is very variable in its habit of growth. When treated strictly as a floating Aquatic, the petioles are short and very much inflated; but when the roots are in soil this inflation diminishes, the petioles assuming an almost cylindrical shape and growing to a much greater length. The shining, deep-green leaves are also very variable, both in size and in shape. In order. Fig. 609.—ElCHHORNIA Please
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