WILD FLOWERS white and greenish 



surface of the inlet; the crisp, invigorating, balsam- 

 laden air; the wild, tangled background of gaunt, 

 scraggly trees and stumps, and the deer — I cannot 

 adequately describe it; no one can. Often I have let 

 my canoe drift quietly near these same " spring 

 holes" where the deer fed, while I sought to lure, with 

 tiny flies, the speckled trout that also loved the fas- 

 cination and seclusion of the captivating Water Lilies 

 and their "pads." We never plucked the blossoms, 

 for they were our daily companions. The large, 

 attractive flowers float majestically upon the sur- 

 face of the water in a field of waxy-green leaves, and 

 exhale an exquisite fragrance. Their numerous 

 pointed oblong petals are deeply hollowed. Their 

 texture is firm, and their colour is a beautiful white, 

 sometimes tinged with pink. They are arranged alter- 

 nately in several rows and finally graduate toward the 

 centre into many pure yellow stamens. Their four 

 dark green sepals are shaped like the large petals, and 

 are lined with white or pinkish white. The innermost 

 stamens are very slender and bear long anthers, while 

 those intermediate with the petals become broader 

 with shortened tips. The pistil is compound with 

 radiating and projecting stigmas. The flowers are 

 from three to five and a half inches broad. They open 

 at sunrise, and close toward noon, excepting perhaps 

 on cloudy days. As they fade, they are drawn beneath 

 the surface of the water, where the seeds ripen. The 

 large, floating leaf is from four to twelve inches in 

 diameter, and has a toothless margin. The upper sur- 



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