78 SUMMER 



frog-bit, with its large white blossom, and the villarsia, which 

 has yellow flowers, and is like a small water-lily. Water- 

 lilies spring from deeper water, and send their leaves and 

 buds to the surface by long clinging stems. The yellow 

 water-lily is the smaller and commoner of the two ; its 

 ripening seed-heads smell like anise, and are shaped much 

 like the capsules of the poppy tribe, with which the water- 

 lilies are closely allied, for all their difference of habit. The 

 white water-lily brings the very fullness of summer to the 

 ample lowland streams ; it first opens its large green buds 

 about midsummer, and goes on blooming throughout July. 

 When the seed is ripened, the heads sink again into the 

 depths. The same object of reaching the sunshine for the 

 flowering and fruiting time is attained in a highly specialised 

 manner by the bladderwort, which grows in the shallower 

 ditches. The fibrous leaves are buoyed up by small bladders, 

 and the plant thus gains stability to hold erect its spike of 

 yellow blossoms, mouthed like the snapdragon. Forget-me- 

 not spreads its turquoise blossoms and fresh green leaves 

 among the running ditches ; blue brooklime and purple 

 water-speedwell mingle with the water-cress and white- 

 flowered marshwort, which mimics the water-cress until we 

 look for the notched edges to its leaves. 



Meadow-sweet and willow-herb are two of the most con- 

 spicuous plants among the taller vegetation of the river- 

 banks at midsummer; they begin to bloom when the comfrey 

 has shed its bell-shaped blossoms of purple, pink, or white. 

 Like the milkwort of the midsummer downs, its blossoms 

 run through many shades of colour ; nor does the difference 

 seem to correspond to any difference in the soil constituents, 

 as is the case with the garden hydrangea and the white or 

 yellow anemone. Marsh woundwort lifts its nettle-like leaves 

 and purple blossoms among the same varied vegetation, and 



