38 (ilJMPSKS I\'rO I'LAXT-IJFE 



mud, and yet its flowers need to be fertilised in the 

 air. In order to effect this, the small male flowers 

 detach themselves from their stems, and, rising 

 through the water, float about upon its surface. 

 The female flowers are borne on a stalk, spirally 

 twisted, so that it can uncoil and allcjw the flower 

 to reach the top of the water whether it be deep 

 or shallow. There the two kinds of flowers meet, 

 the .seeds are formed and the stem coils up again 

 and brings the capsule below the surface, where 

 it gradually matures. 



The water-lily can grow a long or short stem 

 as the depth of the water may require to enable 

 its leaves to lie flat upon the surface. I have 

 gathered lily flowers in my lake with stems from 

 four to five feet long, where the plant happened 

 to be growing in deep \\ater. 



in such [slants as the mare's-tail {Hippuris 

 v/i/garis), we find the stem specially adapted to 

 a submerged life. Growing out of mud at the 

 bottom of a stream the plant upholds its slender 

 stalks by two different methods. Inside the epi- 

 dermis (or outer skin) a strand of rather tough 

 tissue runnini; through the centre skives flexible 



