iv] THE WATER SOLDIER 53 



If vigorous plants of Stratiotes be examined in the late sum- 

 mer, they will be found to have produced numerous lateral 

 stolons terminating in buds^ (F^g- S^)- These buds do 

 not, like those of Hydrocharis^ pass the winter in a closed con- 

 dition, but open at once, and may be described as winter-buds 



Fig. 32. Stratiotes aloides, L. Plant after flowering in August, bearing five plant- 

 lets at the ends of stolons. (Reduced.) [Modified from Nolte, E. F. (1825).] 



which germinate while attached to the parent plant. There is, 

 in fact, no interruption in the vegetative life, since the daughter 

 shoots, as soon as they become free from the parent axis in 

 autumn or winter, begin to form new winter-buds themselves. 

 In North Germany, the Water Soldier was described in i860 



1 Gluck, H. (1906). 



