YELLOW WATER LILY 77 



vided an English name for this plant, whose stigma has numerous rays 

 which do not extend to the margin. The flowers smell like brandy. 

 The sepals and petals stand upon a fleshy disk surrounding the ovary 

 with many ovules. The petals are small, the stamens inserted below 

 the ovary. There is a nectary. 



The Yellow Water Lily is aquatic, and the flowers rise above the 

 water level but 23 in. during the day. It flowers from June to 

 August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



The 5-6 yellow sepals have taken on the function of petals, the 

 outer or underside secreting honey between them and the petals. 

 The pistil is large and the stamens are numerous, but pollination 

 by insects is accidental. The flowers are scented. The stigma matures 

 first, then the anthers, commencing outwards. 



The visitors are beetles, Meligethes, various flies, and other beetles, 

 Onesia (Muscidae), Donacia dentata (Chrysomelidse). The pollen- 

 grains are large, rough, elliptical. 



The fruits are dispersed by the agency of water and the plant's 

 own methods. After the flower has expanded at the surface it retires 

 to the bottom to allow the seed to germinate when mature, in the 

 mud at the bottom, being thus dispersed by an automatic, almost 

 psychic, motion of the plant itself (cf. Vallisneria in some respects). 

 See also Nymphcea (Castalia} alba. It is a Hydrophyte and aquatic, 

 growing in the floating-leaf association. 



No fungi attack it. Galeriica nymphcea, Donacia crassipcs (beetles), 

 and the moth Hydrocampa potamogcti visit it. 



The name Nymphcsa was given by Theophrastus, being from the 

 Greek nympha, water nymph, lutea meaning yellow. 



The English names are Blob, Bobbins, Brandy -bottle, Butter 

 Churn, Butter-pumps, Cambie-leaf, Candock, Churn, Clot, Clote-leaf, 

 Water Colt's-foot, Flatter-dock, Yellow or Water Lily, Lily-can, 

 Nenuphar, Water Blob, Water-can, Water Rose. 



The name Brandy-bottle alludes to the odour of the flower, or the 

 shape of the ovary more probably, so also Butter Churn; and Candock 

 is given from its broad leaves and the shape of the ovary, like a silver 

 can or flagon. 



The Water Lily was considered inimical to sorcery, and in the 

 Rhine district used with a certain formula. Pliny says it was used as 

 an antidote for a love-philtre. The smoke of it burnt in a house was 

 said to drive out crickets, and cockroaches also are killed by partaking 

 of the roots bruised and rubbed in milk; but pigs are fond of the leaves 

 and the root, though other animals will not touch it. 



