84 GREAT WHITE WATER-LILY. 



admirers. But as our little book is especially inten- 

 ded to convey some knowledge of the floral Naiads, 

 to those readers who have not made the vegetable 

 kingdom the object of their careful study; and, as 

 aquatic plants wofully deficient in dignity of aspect 

 and gracefulness of form, when compared with the 

 true Water-Lily of the poets, are frequently mis- 

 taken by general observers for that plant, a few de- 

 scriptive remarks may not be wasted even on this 

 well-known species. To begin at the root, therefore, 

 where the precepts of botanical philosophy and the 

 examples of nature teach us to begin that organ is 

 of a tuberous nature, forming a horizontal rhizome, 

 which generally lies near the surface of the soft mud 

 at the bottom of the water. From this rhizome, 

 proceed a numerous series of strong filmy radicles, 

 which descend to a considerable depth in the mud, 

 and are " fibrous at the extremity," according to the 

 author of the " English Flora," a circumstance ex- 

 tremely likely, although our own researches have not 

 been carried to sufficient depth to corroborate the 

 fact. The tuberous root or rhizome is said to have 

 " an astringent and bitter taste like the roots of most 

 aquatic plants that run deep into the mud." Although 

 the Great White Water-Lily generally prefers rather 

 deep water, and always those lakes and rivers which 

 the summer heat never dries up, yet the alternate 

 floods and drought which affect those natural re- 

 servoirs to so great an extent, have the effect of 



