ALONG THE WATERWAYS 



smaller Orchids. These also are flowers to rejoice 

 over when seen in their perfection with clear 

 water for a background, and 

 splendid dragon - flies darting 

 over them; but when gathered 

 soon are but sad little wrecks, 

 with curled, blackened leaves 

 and drooping blossoms, like so 

 many of the frailer flowers of 

 the waterways, literally melting 

 to tears on leaving home. 



All about this upper pond 

 crowded a half woody growth, which 

 arched its long, slender branches over 

 the water until they trailed in it, after 

 the fashion of vines. Upon the wand- 

 like stems of the near-by shrubs I 

 could see, set in the axils of the leaves, 

 the groups of small, pink -purple flow- 

 ers, whose thin, narrow petals and long stamens 

 gave the stalks a rosy, fringed appearance. Where 

 a vigorous stalk bent low enough to reach the 

 mud beneath the water a mass of roots could be 

 seen spreading from it, and grasping a firm hold, 

 while the stem of a new plant started upward from 

 these roots. 



