240 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



rare, but very elegant, is a plant called the water 

 lobelia, which grows in some mountain tarns and 

 in the Cumbarland and Westmoreland lakes, 

 where the surface in places is closely carpeted 

 with its matted leaves. It has clusters of light 

 blue flowers, drooping from a stern a foot high. 



Very arrow-like must be the plant which bears 

 the English name of arrowhead and the Latin 

 name of Sagittaria saglttifolia, and its leaves are 

 indeed very arrow-shaped. Quiet pools and bays 

 of rivers are often carpeted with the large, bright 

 leaves, from which in July and August rise whorls 

 of pretty white flowers on a stalk seven or eight 

 inches above the water. 



Amid the rushes the water plantain grows tall 

 and large, with delicate, small, rose-coloured 

 flowers ; and below, among the lilies, the kidney- 

 shaped leaves and white three-petalled flower of 

 the frogbit may often be seen. 



These are but a few of the commoner flowers 

 and plants which meet the eye of the angler on 

 his waterside rambles ; and they are pleasant pic- 

 tures enough, severally and collectively set as 

 they are in a framework of waving rushes of 

 many kinds, reeds brown and feathery, bur-reeds 

 with clustered fruits, and reed mace and bulrush 

 with purple and substantial heads. Colour, 

 beauty, motion, lightness, elegance these are 

 the elements of the picture of which these water- 

 side plants are the canvas and the paints. 



