HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



tered along the stem, sessile, transparent, long, narrow, small. 

 Stem, 4 inches to 3 feet long, according to the depth of the water. 

 May to August. Aquatic. 



A small, slender herb, growing its stems and leaves under 

 water, but bringing its pistillate flowers to the surface by 

 stretching the tube of the perianth till it reaches the top of 

 the water. This tube is thin and thread-like. The staminate 

 flowers break off early, scattering their pollen on the water 

 around the stigmas of the pistillate flowers. 



Tape, or eel-grass (Valisneria spiralis), belongs to this 

 Family. Its ribbon-like leaves grow 6 feet long. It is com- 

 mon and well known. 



Wild Calla. Water Arum 



Calla. palustris. — Family, Arum. Color of the spathe, white; 

 berries, red. Leaves, broad, somewhat heart-shaped, on long,' 

 thick petioles. May and June. 



The flower of this pretty aquatic is a close copy of the 

 stately potted plant the calla lily. The true flowers appear 

 — staminate above, pistillate below — on a fleshy receptacle, 

 the spadix, which is short and thick. This lies against a 

 broad, flattish, much pointed, pure white open leaf, the 

 spathe. 



No other leaf grows upon the flower-stem. Others, green, 

 on long stalks, come up from the creeping rootstock. 



These are common flowers in Lapland and other Northern 

 countries, where they grow so numerously as to cover whole 

 marshes and exclude other plants. The roots arc caustic 

 and acrid. 



They are found from Nova Scotia to Virginia and west- 

 ward. 



Pipewort 

 Eriocaulon articulktum. — Family, Pipewort. Color, a leaden 

 white. Stamens and pistils in different flowers, in the same head. 

 Divisions of perianth, in staminate flowers, 2 or 3 , narrow, bearded 

 with fine, white hairs ; in pistillate flowers, similar, with an inner 

 set of smaller segments. Stamens, 4 to 6. The flowers are so 

 small that their parts can only be made out with a magnifying- 

 glass. A white, woolly beard abounds among them, and covers 

 the base of the scape, which is long enough to bring the flower- 

 heads to the water's surface, and so may be a few inches or 

 several feet in length. The scape is angled with 4 to 7 lines, 



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