COMMON YELLOW WATER-LILY. 99 



epithet of " Brandy-bottles" has been applied to this 

 plant. The name has no doubt arisen from the 

 odour of the flowers taken in connection with the 

 peculiar " flagon-shaped" seed-vessels by which they 

 are succeeded. The berry or seed-vessel of this 

 plant, unlike that of the White Water-Lily, bursts 

 when ripe for the emission of the seeds, not dissolv- 

 ing into a soft pulp, as we have already noticed to 

 be the case with the Nympha3a. 



We have already referred to the fact of various 

 species of Water-Lily being edible, and used for food 

 both by man and the lower animals; and even in 

 the case of the sacred Lotus, " Achilles was so pro- 

 fane as to feed his horses with it." The roots of the 

 Yellow Water-Lily, while they are eaten by some ani- 

 mals, prove poisonous to others. Withering states, 

 on the authority of Linnaeus, that the root rubbed 

 with milk destroys crickets and cockroaches; and 

 that, as already mentioned regarding the Nymphsea 

 alba, although swine eat it, goats are not fond of it, 

 and cows, sheep, and horses refuse it. The same bota- 

 nist mentions that it has proved poisonous to moles. 

 Smith thinks that the flowers are perhaps used to 

 communicate a flavour, by infusion, to the cooling 

 liquors or sherbets used in the Levant. 



While the Great White Water-Lily chiefly inha- 

 bits the clear and still waters of the lake or the quiet 

 river, the Yellow Water-Lily, on the other hand, 

 dwells oftener in the running streams and ditches, 



