GKEAT WHITE WATER-LILY. 85 



changing its depth of water very frequently, and 

 the leaf and flower-stalks appear to be gifted with 

 the power of relaxing and contracting according to 

 the circumstances of the plant. In one instance, 

 recorded by Leighton in the " Shropshire Flora," 

 the foot-stalks were observed of the extraordinary 

 length of fourteen feet; but it is probable that they 

 do not generally attain to half that length. The 

 leaves, which it is the purpose of the foot-stalk to 

 support, float upon the smooth surface, being some- 

 times so numerous as to completely cover large 

 portions of the pure element, and thus impart to it 

 their own verdant hue. They are oval, or heart- 

 shaped, with parallel lobes at the base, so that the 

 leaf appears as if partly slit up in the middle, but 

 otherwise quite entire. The leaves are of a stout 

 leathery texture, so "smooth and shiny, that the 

 water runs over them as if their surfaces were 

 oiled," and about nine inches, sometimes more, in 

 diameter. The blossoms are of the purest white, 

 the calyx leaves being occasionally very slightly 

 tinged with red. When fully expanded, the flower 

 is not unlike a double rose, there being several rows 

 of regular 'petals, gradually decreasing in size to- 

 wards the centre of the blossom, where they insen- 

 sibly merge into the yellow stamens; thus, it is in 

 every respect a natural double flower, differing in 

 no manner of way from those double flowers grown 

 by the florist, except that in the Lily there are al- 



