STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



exquisite buds and half unfolded blossoms that are spring- 

 ing upwards to the air and sunlight. 



The hollow boat-shaped sepals of the calyx are four in 

 number, of a bright olive green, smooth and oily in texture. 

 The flowers do not expand fully until they reach the sur- 

 face. The petals are numerous, hollow (or concave), blunt, 

 of a pure ivory white, very fragrant, having the rich odor 

 of freshly-cut lemons; they are set round the surface of 

 the ovary in regular rows, one above the other, gradually 

 lessening in size till they change, by imperceptible grada- 

 tion, into the narrow fleshy petal-like yellow anthers. The 

 pistil is without style, the stigma forming a flat-rayed top 

 to the ovary, as in the Poppy and many other plants. 



But if the White Water-lily is beautiful, how much more 

 so is the lovely pink-flowered variety, N. odorata, var. rosea, 

 found abundantly in many of the small lakes in the northern 

 counties of Ontario, particularly in the Muskoka district, of 

 such an exquisite shade of color that it could be compared 

 only with the 



" Hues of the rich unfolding morn, 

 That ere the glorious sun be born, 

 By some soft touch invisible 

 Around his path are taught to swell." 



Keble. 



On the approach of night our lovely water-nymph 

 gradually closes her petals and slowly retires to rest in 

 her watery bed, to rise again the following day to court the 

 warmth and light so necessary for the perfection of the 

 embryo seeds; and this continues till the fertilization of 

 the germ has been completed, when the petals shrink and 

 wither and the seed-vessel sinks down to the bottom of the 

 water, where the seeds ripen in its secret chambers. Thus 

 silently and mysteriously does Nature perform her wonder- 



