26 PLANTS GROWING IN WATER. 



up vigour, for there is never any procrastination about the 

 flowers, sinks to the bottom of the pond and nestles in the mud. 

 The warmer water, which is heavier than ice, also remains at the 

 bottom. This considerate arrangement of nature's laws makes 

 it, therefore, possible for the fair lily to spend the winter very 

 comfortably and no doubt enjoying itself with the water 

 nymphs to whom it has been dedicated. 



The plant also illustrates the gradation of sepals into petals 

 and petals into stamens, or the metamorphosis of the flower. 

 The sepals or transformed leaves are green without but white 

 within, so that it is difficult to know with any amount of cer- 

 tainty to which set they belong. An inner row of petals is 

 found to be tipped with a suggestion of an anther. In the next 

 row the anther becomes more pronounced and the petal 

 assumes more the shape of a filament. This gradation is con- 

 tinued until a perfect stamen is developed. At least, this is the 

 manner in which we are apt to regard the transformation. 

 Many writers, however, of whom Mr. Grant Allen is one, con- 

 sider that the gradation is in the reverse order and that petals 

 are transformed stamens. 



At the close of day the lily folds up its petals, gathers its 

 leaves and stems together, and disappears under the water. 

 Not a trace of its whereabouts is left : like the Arab it has 

 silently stolen away. Moore alludes to this fact in comparing 

 the lily to virgins that bathe in the water all night and appear 

 more fresh and beautiful in the morning. 



YELLOW POND-LILY. SPATTER DOCK. (Plate Iff.) 



Nymphoea ddvena. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Water-lily. Yellow, centre tinged Unpleasant. General. May-August, 



with crimson." 



Flowers : unattractive ; solitary. Calyx: of six to eight unequal sepals that 

 vary in colour from yellow to green. Corolla : of coarse, fleshy petals that are 

 shorter than the stamens. Stamens: numerous. Pistil: one, the stigma 

 spreading like a many-rayed disk. Leaves : rising out of the water and having 

 a deep space between the rounded lobes. 



The yellow pond-lily is not pretty, and we have no especial 



