322 WILD FLOWEBS OF 



and under the influence of the unclouded sunbeams, 

 closing towards evening, when they either recline on 

 the surface of the water or sink entirely under it. 

 Hence the author of the Moral of Flowers, has thus 

 apostrophized this silver-crowned naiad : 



" Yes, thou art Day's own flower for when he's fled, 

 Sorrowing thou droop'st beneath the wave thy head ; 

 And watching, weeping through the livelong night, 

 Look'st forth impatient for the dawning light; 

 And, as it brightens into perfect day. 

 Dost from its inmost fold thy breast display. 

 Oh ! that e'en I, from earth's defilement free, 

 Could bare my bosom to the light like thee ! " 



As the rose is the queen of the bower, so, undoubt- 

 edly, is the Nymphaea the empress of the lake, and 

 thus reclining on her liquid throne she is well entitled 

 to her Indian appellation " Cumada," or, " Delight of 

 the Waters;" but there seems something so emble- 

 matical of purity about this lovely plant, that the 

 warning of SHAKSPEAEE not to paint it is singularly 

 appropriate, and I shall not soil the petals of the fair 

 flower by dilating farther upon its praise. The petals 

 are excessively multiplied by the stamens becoming 

 petaloid, and thus every gradation is visible between 

 the fertile stamen, the narrow and the full-sized petals. 

 Sir J. E. SMITH has stated the flowers to be destitute 

 of scent, but I have often noticed the air to be laden 

 with a peculiar brandy-like fragrance where numerous 

 Water-lilies abounded. The carpel disappears after 

 flowering, sinking to the bottom of the water, where 

 the seeds lie scattered among the mud to rise and 

 vegetate the next year. 



The white Water-lily is not of common occurrence 

 in the midland counties, though in the still waters of 



