218 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



analogous to those which the gardener artificially 

 lops off and " strikes " in our gardens. Only, the 

 gardener's cuttings have been rudely sliced off 

 with a knife, after the crude human fashion, while 

 those of the pond-weed have been neatly released 

 without injury to the tissues, the separation being 

 performed by an act of growth, with all the beauti- 

 ful perfection that marks nature's handicraft. 



In the soft slimy mud, the shoots of the curled 

 pond-weed lie by during the frozen period, hearing 

 the noise of the gliding skates above them, and 

 suffering slightly at times from the chill of the 

 water, but actually protected by the great-coat of 

 ice from the severest effects of the hard weather. 

 By-and-by, when spring comes again, however, the 

 shoots begin to bud out, as you see in No. 6, and 

 once more to produce the original type of pond- 

 weed. The weed then continues to form leaves 

 and stems, and finally to flower, which it does 

 with a head or spike of queer little green blossoms, 

 raised unobtrusively above the surface of the water. 

 They are not pretty, because they do not depend 

 upon animals for the transference of their pollen. 

 I could tell you some curious things about these 

 flowers, too, which find themselves far from insects, 

 and destitute of attractive petals ; so they have 

 taken in despair to a quaint method of fertilisation 

 by bombardment, so to speak the stamens open- 

 ing in calm weather, and dropping their pollen 

 out on the saucer-like petals, whence the first high 

 wind carries it off with a burst to the stigma or 

 sensitive surface of the sister flowers. But that, 



