CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 



577 



length. There are also one middle vein and two veins 

 near the edge, all of which are more prominent than the rest. 

 These are connected at intervals by cross veinlets. Some- 

 times this plant is confused with eelgrass {Zoster a marina), 

 which grows in tidewater, but the leaves of wild celery grow 

 in bundles from the root stock, while 

 those of eelgrass grow singly and al- 

 ternately on opposite sides of the 

 stem. Wild celery is sometimes con- 

 founded with pipewort {Eriocaulon), 

 a fresh-water plant, and also with 

 certain stages of arrow-head. The 

 staminate flowers of the wild celery, 

 attached at the base of the plant, 

 shed pollen which floats on the water 

 and fertilizes the pistillate flowers, 

 which are attached to a long, slender, 

 rounded stem. This stem assumes a 

 spiral form, and by its contraction 

 draws the flower under water after 

 fertilization, where the seed pod is 

 developed. This seed pod and its 

 spiral stem distinguish this from all 

 other fresh-water plants. The pod is 

 more slender than a common lead 

 pencil, is from three to six inches 

 long and contains about fifty small 

 dark seeds to the inch, embedded in 

 a clear jelly within the pod. 



Wild celery is not more difficult 

 to plant than wild rice and may be 

 grown anywhere in the United States 

 under the requisite conditions. It 

 may be propagated by seeds and by 

 winter buds (Plate XXXII), or by fragments of the plant with a 

 little of the rootstock attached. Buds, plants or seeds must not 

 be allowed to dry or ferment before planting. The seed pods 

 ripen from September to X^ovember and fall to the bottom, from 



Fig. 24. — Leaves of wild celery, 

 showing venation. (Natural size.) 



