1 12 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



Only the blossoms show that the plants are rep- 

 resentatives of four widely-divergent botanical fam- 

 ilies. 



Of all parts of the plant, the leaf is most sub- 

 ject to change, and the readiest, like Poo Bah, to 

 fill all offices at once. 



The same plant may bear two kinds, differing in 

 form and in habits. 



Some water-plants have both floating and sub- 

 merged leaves. The floating foliage breathes at- 

 mospheric air, and the submerged foliage lives, as 

 fishes do, by breathing the air which is in the 

 water. The water-crowfoot, for instance, bears 

 some floating leaves, and some which live beneath 

 the surface. The floating leaves are broad, like 

 those of the plant's near relations, the meadow 

 buttercups, but those which live in the water are 

 fringed. 



In the common arrow-head, another amphibi- 

 ous vegetable, the submerged leaves are long and 

 narrow, like blades of grass, and the terrestrial 

 ones are arrow-shaped. Every leaf which spends 

 its life under water, whatever its family habits and 

 traditions may be, and whatever its aerial sisters 

 may look like, is either a fringe or a narrow rib- 

 bon. Thus submerged foliage is doubly fitted for 



