WATER LILY. 151 



that lily forth again to clothe the waters 

 with fresh beauty ; but when the seeds are 

 ripe the purpose of her growth is finished. 

 Where the petals and the leaves have floated, 

 the heavy seed-vessel may be upborne no 

 longer; the leaf-stalks which arose from out 

 the bottom of the lake, presenting a canopy 

 of leaves and flowers to the action of the 

 sun and wind, with all their exquisite me- 

 chanism, for the purposes of life and nu- 

 triment have done their work. Pressed 

 down by the terminating weight, they sink 

 gradually, and in sinking bring down with 

 them the ponderous and many-celled globes 

 containing seed. The globes then decom- 

 pose into a gelatinous mass, and the dis- 

 engaged seeds become deposited therein. If 

 the bed of the mountain lake, or river, be 

 rich in soil, the vegetable decomposition 

 serves to enrich it still more : if pebbly, the 

 gelatinous mass forms a nucleus around the 



