No. 926 



Floating or Submerged Aquatic Plants 



Aquatic plants, as here understood, differ from those 

 treated elsewhere in the book, in having floating or submerged 

 leaves, or both. They are not the same as those plants that 

 grow in the water, but the structure of whose stems permits 

 them to be erect, like the Cat-tail, and many others, scattered 

 through various families. True aquatics are flaccid, weak, 

 and most of them float on the surface like the Water Lily, or 

 live wholly submerged, like many of the Pond-weeds. All 

 those described below are flowering plants, although some of 

 them bear only inconspicuous or tiny flowers that escape 

 attention unless looked for carefully. Others, like the Water 

 Lily and Bladderworts bear conspicuous and often very 

 beautiful flowers. Some plants that grow in or near the water 

 have been treated in other parts of the book, largely for struc- 

 tural reasons. As they may be sought here the list of them 

 follows : 



No. 10. Water Plantain 412. Swamp Loosestrife 



258. Water Carpet 471. Tufted Loosestrife 



329. Marsh Marigold 520. Grass-of-Parnassus 



382. False Mermaid 79Q. Buckbean 



397. Yellow Water-cress 803-804 Bladderworts 



None of these are true aquaticg 



A few are included here in spite of the fact that their 

 flower stalks, like the Water Lobelia, rise erect above the 

 surface, because their leaves are wholly submerged and 

 adapted only to underwater growth. 



Perhaps the most interesting of all aquatic plants is the 

 Eel-grass. It produces two sorts of flowers, the male which 

 live in the depths except for one brief flight to the surface 

 and destruction, and the female on long cojljng stalks, which 

 remain well below the surface until ready for fertilization, 



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