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 w T hich 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 



