ALONG THE RIVER 



77 



lily, which flowers in late spring and early summer, long" 

 after the snowdrop which it resembles has been buried by 

 the rising vegetation in the woods. It is to escape a like 

 suffocation that the Loddon lily and all the later plants of the 

 riverside sedge-belts must grow so tall. Only thus can they 

 reach the sunlight, except when they have floating or half- 

 sunken leaves, and flower on the surface of shallow pools 

 and backwaters. The first blossom of these water-gardens, 



LODDON LILY 



after the familiar marsh marigold, is the delicate lilac water- 

 violet, which shakes out its loose cluster in April and early 

 May. Here the nomenclature of the waterside plants has 

 run wilder than usual, for the water- violet is neither a true 

 violet nor resembles one. It is more like the cuckoo-flower 

 or lady-smock which blooms at the same time in the neigh- 

 bouring meadows. About midsummer the arrow-head lifts 

 its pink flowers and angular arrow-shaped leaves out of the 

 water in many of the shallow ditches communicating with the 

 Thames. Rarer plants of the same Thames ditches are the 



