144 WILD FLOWERS. 



seeds are most frequently the produce of rayed 

 flowers, like the dandelion and thistle ; but 

 some few flowers, as the willow herb and cle- 

 matis, send them forth also by thousands. 

 The latter plant is so covered with them, that 

 if in winter it grow near a town, the hedge looks 

 as if the spiders had been diligently weaving 

 their tapestry about the branches, and produced 

 a drapery of cobwebs ; or if it be far away 

 among the wild woods, where the smoke cannot 

 reach it, it seems as if the swan had bestowed 

 its down upon it. The great quantity of down 

 yielded by the seeds of the willow herbs has 

 induced some writers to recommend their culti- 

 vation for manufactures. The down has been 

 mingled with fur or wool, and made into stock- 

 ings, with very good success. 



A very pretty aquatic, the water arrowhead, 

 {Sagittaria sagittifolia,) easily known from all 

 our other water plants by its arrow-shaped 

 leaves, is frequently found in the pools in July. 

 It has white flowers, and its leaves lie in large 

 iiiasses on the surface of the stream. The 

 root is most nutritious, and might well be used 

 in this country as food ; but in warmer climates, 

 where the whole plant is more luxuriant, its 

 large size renders it very valuable. 



The " cresses, which grow where no man may 

 see them," now often lie in abundance on the 

 secluded stream. Our rural flora does not fur- 

 nish a more wholesome salad herb than the 

 water-cress {Nasturtium qffic'male.) The only 

 danger which arises from eating this plant, is 



