PLANTS THAT KEEP AN ARMY 57 



pinks, to the snowy whiteness of the outside. These 

 blossoms, many of them a foot or more in diam- 

 eter, raise their graceful heads above the waters 

 with truly regal majesty, verily queens of the sea. 



Assuredly the Regia is well named for the great 

 ruler of that nation which has been called the 

 "Queen of the Seas," for, with its gigantic leaves 

 and its gorgeously blazing blossoms, what can it be 

 said to resemble more than a great floating navy? 

 And truly the Regia is a navy, for each of its 

 ponderous broad leaves forms a great "dread- 

 naught," manned with an active fighting crew, in 

 the shape of the numerous water-birds, which find 

 in the wide deep-rimmed pads of the lily a safe 

 and dry footing. 



It is these birds which form the standing army 

 of the queen lily; better, perhaps, call them the 

 aerial, standing, and swimming armies, for among 

 their numbers are birds of all three kinds. It has 

 been said that no less than a dozen tropical birds 

 are accustomed to make use of the lily pads as 

 their boats. 



The birds catch fish from their vantage-point on 

 the leaves ; and they feed on the hundreds of aquatic 

 insects and snails which swarm about the under sur- 

 face of the pads. As many of these insects would 

 be harmful to the plant, were they allowed free 



