Preferred Habitat - Still water, ponds, lakes, slow streams.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the
Mississippi.

Sumptuous queen of our native aquatic plants, of the royal family
to which the gigantic Victoria regia of Brazil belongs, and all
the lovely rose, lavender, blue, and golden exotic water lilies
in the fountains of our city parks, to her man, beast, and insect
pay grateful homage. In Egypt, India, China, Japan, Persia, and
Asiatic Russia, how many millions have bent their heads in
adoration of her relative the sacred lotus! From its center
Brahma came forth; Buddha, too, whose symbol is the lotus, first
appeared floating on the mystic flower (Nelumbo nelumbo, formerly
Nelumbium speciosum). Happily the lovely pink or white "sacred
bean" or "rose-lily" of the Nile, often cultivated here, has been
successfully naturalized in ponds about Bordentown, New Jersey,
and maybe elsewhere. If he who planteth a tree is greater than he
who taketh a city, that man should be canonized who introduces
the magnificent wild flowers of foreign lands to our area of
Nature's garden.

Now, cultivation of our native water lilies and all their hardy
kin, like charity, begins at home. Their culture in tubs, casks,
or fountains on the lawn, is so very simple a matter, and the
flowers bloom so freely, every garden should have a corner for
aquatic plants. Secure the water-lily roots as early in the
spring as possible, and barely cover them with good rich loam or
muck spread over the bottom of the sunken tub to a depth of six
or eight inches. After it has been filled with water, and