96 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



becomes glossy, and is covered with a waxy secretion, 

 which throws oft the water. 



The textbooks of botany which I have examined give 

 no adequate description of the stem (rootstock) of our 

 water-lilies, and I shall therefore describe them more fully 

 than would otherwise be necessary. The rootstocks of 

 the white and yellow water-lily (Figs. 19, 20, 22) are alike 

 in their general appearance, and resemble the human arm 

 in size and form, except that they are a little flattened 

 from above downwards along their whole length. They 

 are prostrate, and lie on or in the mud. The larger end 



FIG. 21. Yellow water-lily. Section through growing end of 

 rootstock. x f . 



is the older, and is more or less decayed. The leaves of 

 the year are given off towards the smaller end, and beyond 

 these, during most of the year, is found a bunch of un- 

 developed leaves, rolled up tightly and forming pointed 

 stalk-like projections, which stand out horizontally for 

 perhaps a foot beyond the growing point of the rhizome 

 and in line with it. The growing end is a little turned up, 

 and buried among the bases of the leaves of the current 

 year. A few inches farther back the leaves have dis- 

 appeared, but their scars mark the rootstock, especially 

 its top and sides, with a conspicuous pattern. Towards 

 the growing end, from the sides and lower surface, many 

 rootlets, of about the diameter of a goose-quill and often 

 a foot long, project downwards into the mud. A rootlet 

 is generally shaggy with root-hairs, except for an inch or 



