52 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
Being so entirely unique in habit, or like a huge 
trailing creeper in the water, it presents a marked 
contrast to its usual associates of the pool, such as 
the pondweeds, the Arrowhead, and the flowering 
rush. In habit it resembles the first perhaps more 
than most aquatic plants. Upon its broad leaves 
the conchologist or shell-hunter will find many a 
delicate water-snail. Beneath its umbrageous foli- 
age lurks many a fish in the hot summer months. 
The plant dies down in winter, and at first the 
young leaves pushing up to the surface are very 
unlike the familiar floating plates, and are then much 
broken by the swift course of the current when the 
waters are swollen in spring. They soon expand 
and assume the oval orbicular outline as they lie 
upon the surface, with upturned margin and cordate 
base, borne on long petioles or branches arising from 
the submerged stems. 
The flowers are borne singly on rounded flower- 
stalks which bend upwards as the buds open and 
lift themselves above the surface. During the day 
they are wide open, closing at night, and sinking 
lower in the water. The petals, which are numerous, 
giving with the petal-like stamens the flower a double 
appearance, merging into each other (a feature more 
marked in the white Water Lily), are a delicate light 
yellow. The sepals, longer than the petals, are five in 
number. The carpel is flask-like, giving it the name 
Brandy Bottle, and the stigma is sessile, many-rayed, 
the rays not reaching the rim. The smell of the 
