226 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 



It does a sympathetic observer good to 

 see how humanly plants differ in their likes 

 and dislikes. One is catholic : as common 

 people say, it is not particular; it can live 

 and thrive almost anywhere. Another must 

 have precisely such and such conditions, and 

 is to be found, therefore, only in very re- 

 stricted localities. The Dioncea, or Venus's 

 fly-trap, is a famous example of this fastidi- 

 ousness, growing in a small district of North 

 Carolina, and, as far as appears, nowhere 

 else, a highly specialized plant, with no 

 generic relative. Another instance is fur- 

 nished by a water lily (Nymplicea elegans), 

 the rediscovery of which is chronicled in a 

 late issue of one of our botanical journals. 1 

 "This lily was originally found in 1849, and 

 has never been seen since, holding its place 

 in botanical literature for these almost forty 

 years on the strength of a single collection 

 at a single vaguely described station on the 

 broad prairies of southwestern Texas ; " now, 

 after all this time, it turns up again in* an- 

 other quarter of the same State. And every 

 student could report cases of a similar char- 



1 The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for Janu- 

 ary. 1888, page 13. 



