158 DUCK SHOOTING. 



quently grows in channels where the water flows, not 

 swiftly; "eel grass" — this name arises, it is said, by Dr. 

 Darlington, from the habit which eels have of hiding 

 under the leaves, which are usually procumbently float- 

 ing under the water's surface. The appellation "wild 

 celery," a local term applied originally perhaps only by 

 gunners and watermen at Havre de Grace and vicinity, 

 is, like many vulgar synonyms, a misnomer, as this 

 plant is in no particular related to celery, which by 

 botanists is known as Apium. Wild celery, or, as it is 

 more generally known along the coast, eel grass, is not 

 confined to the Chesapeake Bay or to the sea-coast. It 

 is found in the Brandywine Creek, growing in slow- 

 running water, and in many other interior waters. The 

 scientific name of the plant is Vallisneria spiralis 

 (Linn.), the generic name being given in honor of An- 

 tonio Vallisneri, an Italian botanist. It is a dioecious 

 herbaceous plant remarkable on account of its mode of 

 fertilization. It grows entirely under water, has long 

 radical grass-like leaves from one to three feet long 

 and from one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch wide. 

 The female flower floats at the surface at the end of 

 long thread-like spiral scapes, which curiously contract 

 and lengthen with the rise and fall of the water. The 

 male flower has very short stems or scapes, from which 

 the flowers break off and rise to the surface to fertilize 

 the pollen of the attached floating female flowers. 



The canvas-back is one of the swiftest of all our 

 ducks. It is commonly said that they fly at the rate of 

 ninety miles an hour, but, of course, this is a mere 



