LILY, THE YELLOW WATER. 



removal. As the basket rots, the plant becomes 

 fixed in its new situation. Propagate by throw- 

 ing the ripe seed-vessels into large ditches of 

 standing water, when the young plants appear 

 the following spring. 



The Great American Water-Lily, one of the 

 most splendid productions of floral nature, is 

 comparatively a rare plant. It is found in a 

 pond about a mile below the city of Philadel- 

 phia, and not far from Gloucester Point, a place 

 much resorted to by naturalists and amateur 

 florists during the season of flowering (August). 

 Some have asserted a belief that the seeds were 

 introduced from Europe ; but the fact that a 

 plant precisely similar is found in other parts 

 of the country, and even in ponds along rivers 

 west of the Mississippi (the Kanses and Osage, 

 for example), proves the Cyamus or falumt'imn 

 a native of North America as well as of India, 

 where it is called the Saired Lean, and conse- 

 crated to religious purposes. '-There is not," 

 says Professor W. P. C. Barton, "any plant 

 in North America comparable to this for gran- 

 deur, simplicity, and beauty. Truly may it be 

 styled, as I have elsewhere called it, the Queen 

 ofJltneriran t'lmrers. I regret to say that it is 

 not as abundant in our vicinity as it was five 

 years ago. This may be an accidental or tem- 

 porary decrease, owing to a disturbance of the 

 site where it grows. The leaves are perfectly 

 round, and cenlrally peltate. They are from a 

 foot to eighteen inches in diameter, of a rich 

 velvety green above, and very pale underneath. 

 They are supported by petioles from two to 

 three and a half feet in length." The flowers are 

 pale-yellow, globose, and about three or four 

 inches in diameter, supported above the surface 

 of the water by petioles or a scape, a yard in 

 length, frequently murir^te towards the upper 

 part. From this circumstance, together with 

 an accurate examination of a fine Chinese 

 painting of the India species, which differed 

 in nothing from the American plant, except in 

 the rose-coloured flower, Dr. Barton considers 

 the two species as identical. 



The seeds are a kind of nut, very similar to 

 the chinquepin, of a very pleasant flavour, and 

 eagerly sought after by boys. The Indians in 

 the Far-West resort to them as food. 



Of the genus Xymphaa, the Fragrant Water- 

 Lily 's a species native to the United States, a 

 jrery beautiful aquatic plant, with white flowers, 

 which exhale a delicious fragrance. The leaves 

 and flowers both float on the surface of the 

 water. It is a perennial. 



LILY, THE YELLOW WATER (Nuphar 

 from nuvfar or nylotifar, the Arabic name of 

 Nynii>li(f:i). This, like the last described, is 

 a genus of very beautiful plants, admirably 

 adapted for growing in ponds, cisterns, or lakes ; 

 and they are increased by dividing the roots, 

 or by seeds, which have only to be thrown into 

 the water where they are intended to grow. 

 (Paxtan.) , 



In England, the only indigenous species are, 

 1. The common yellow water-lily, or water-can 

 (N. //), which is met with very frequent in 

 the wild state in rivers and pools. The whole 

 plant is rather smaller than the white water- 

 lily. Footstalks two-edged, flattened on the 

 upper surface; leaves entirely smooth, and 



LIME. 



even rounded at the end, and generally at the 

 obes, which meet and lap over each other. 

 The flowers, which appear in July, are about 

 wo inches wide, cupped, all over of a golden 

 yellow, with the scent of brandy or ratafia, 

 whence they are called brandy-bottles in N.or- 

 blk. They perhaps communicale this flavour 

 by infusion to the cooling liquors or sherbets, 

 so much used in the Levant. The seed-vessel, 

 a coated berry, when ripe, bursts irregularly, 

 not dissolving away into a mass of pulp, like 

 the Nymplneu. The roots, like those of the 

 white water-lily, are astringent, and contain a 

 quantity of fecula. If moistened with milk, 

 they are said by Linnaeus lo destroy crickets 

 and cockroaches. Hogs will eat this aquatic 

 plant, but all the other species of live-stock 

 reject it. 



This aquatic plant is what is so familiarly 

 known in the United States by the name of 

 splatter-dock, a perennial, blooming its yellow 

 globular flowers in July and August, filling 

 ditches, and extending for miles along the shal- 

 low banks of rivers, below high water-mark. 



2. The least yellow water-lily (N. pumila}. 

 This is nYuch smaller than the preceding, and 

 flourishes principally in the highland lakes of 

 Scotland. The marsh-trefoil is often called the 

 dwarf water-lily. 



Of the genus Nuphar, another species (Kal 

 wii/jmi) found in the United States is the Small 

 IVater-Lily, with leaves floating like those of 

 the common splatter-dock, but only about one- 

 third the size ; yellow flowers, also floating, and 

 about half an inch in diameter. 



LIMB. The border of a flower; also the 

 branch of a tree. 



LIME (Germ, leim, glue). This very useful 

 earth is the oxide of a metal called calcium. In 

 England it is obtained by exposing chalk and 

 other kinds of limestone, or carbonates of lime, 

 to a red-heat, an operation generally conduct- 

 ed in kilns constructed for the purpose: the 

 carbonic acid is thus expelled, and lime, more 

 or less pure, according to the original qua- 

 lity of the limestone, remains. In this state 

 it is usually called quick-lime. The purest quick- 

 lime is obtained from the calcination of white 

 marble. When sprinkled with water it become^ 

 very hot, and crumbles down into a dry pow- 

 der, called slaked lime, or hydrate of lime, owing 

 to the water becoming consolidated and an es- 

 sential part of the lime. When exposed for 

 some weeks to the air, it also falls into powder, 

 in consequence of the absorption of moisture ; 

 but a portion of carbonic acid is also absorbed, 

 and the lime partially converted into limestone. 

 The uses of lime are very numerous. Its most 

 important application is in the manufacture of, 

 j mortar and other cements used in building. It 

 I is also very extensively used as a manure to 

 1 fertilize land. 



LIME as a manure. There is some reason to 



infer that lime has been used as a manure from 



a very remote period. M. P. Cato, in the oldest 



agricultural treatise which has escaped to us, 



describes, in his sixteenth and thirty-eighth 



chapters, with much minuteness, the best means 



; of preparing it. And although, in the early 



; writers on rural affairs, we find but few notices 



, of its use as a fertilizer, yet we may reasonably 



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