Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/248

 can grow coleouses in England in the open. If one has but a small piece of ground, those flowers that are most effective should be chosen. There is often more pleasure to be got from a border four or five feet wide round the verandah than out of four or five acres of flower garden, because in the border you know and love every plant, they are friends and companions, while in the larger space they are but acquaintances, seen but seldom.

This is a delicate little plant, though with care it will grow and thrive wonderfully and repay one ten-fold by its sweet perfume. It should be raised in a pot stood in a saucer or some receptical for water, as no water should be applied over it. Keep the saucer filled,and it will draw up all the moisture it wants. It is very subject to the ravages of a small green grub, which will often destroy a healthy plant in a day or two. Fumigation with tobacco smoke is the best remedy, but as these little pests are easily found under the leaves they may be picked off and killed. When you notice that the leaves are eaten just lift them gently, and if you cannot find the grubs look in the earth round the roots. One pot of musk will scent a large room.

It is very seldom that one sees an ornamental pond in a small garden; they seem to be a distinct feature of the large or public gardens; yet on many stations there are small ponds that could with very little trouble be made beautiful. Even a tub can be utilised for the purpose in the fernery. I will give the details for a tub, but if you have no fernery and wish to try it, the tub can be placed in some shady corner on a verandah, or beside one of the water tanks. First, get either an old fashioned wooden tub or else a barrel cut down, paint it inside with pitch, and perforate the bottom with many holes. In this put the very best earth you can get—the stuff you use for potting—with old tree moss, charcoal, and bones, etc. In this plant native lily bulbs, of which there are many varieties to be got. Now sink the tub in some waterhole if possible, or if not place it under a constant drip to keep it always moist. By and bye when the bulbs have burst and the leaves appear, the tub can be removed into the fernery and placed inside another and larger tub of water, where it will very soon form a most attractive sight. I have seen small reed baskets just to hold one bulb used, and I have also improvised baskets of wire lined with bark. Elsewhere in these pages I have given directions for growing the narcissus and hyacinth in water—these lillies are grown on much the same principal, but in more