472 THE UNIVERSE. 



tege, floating around the females. Thus is the wedding of 

 the Vallisneria accomplished, and the intent of this curious 

 scene is so clearly marked out that so soon as the act is 

 over the fecundated flowers shorten their spirals, and sink 

 beneath the water to ripen their fruit. 



Our marshes nourish a still more curious plant, the Utri- 

 cularia, doubly remarkable for its singular look and for its 

 mode of ascent. Yet its fecundation is far from having ac- 

 quired the celebrity of that of the Vallisneria, poetry not 

 having appropriated it as it has done with the other. This 

 plant at the bottom of the water looks like a confused mass 

 of fibres. When we withdraw it and inspect it, we observe 

 that its capillary ramifications present here and there little 

 vesicular leaves, representing so many utricles in miniature, 

 the gaping mouths of which seem to be guarded by two 

 prominent filaments. So long as the Utricularia is only 

 occupied in providing for its own subsistence, these vesicles 

 remain filled with a mucous fluid, by the weight of which 

 they are overloaded ; and the plant, borne down in this 

 way, rests supported on the bottom of the pond, to which, 

 however, it in no way adheres. 



But later on, when the period of flowering arrives, the 

 vesicles absorb the mucus which filled them, and replace it 

 with an aeriform fluid. Then the plant, having become 

 lighter than the water, escapes from the bottom and rises 

 to the surface, where it floats, and where its pretty golden 

 yellow flowers are expanded and fecundated. 



After this, by an unexpected reflex action, and when the 

 torches of Hymen are scarcely extinguished, the vesicles ex- 

 pel the gas which they contain, and fill anew with weighty 



