108 Thames Reeds and Lilies 



The plant life of many of the backwaters and 

 shallow by-pools of the Thames is often richer than 

 that of the main channel. The home of some of the 

 scarcest and most beautiful species in the river flora 

 is in the sleeping dykes and pools that are seldom 

 quickened with an active current except in floods. 

 These quiet and shallow waters foster an earlier 

 activity in plant life than the banks of the outer 

 stream. Before the end of April the water-violet 

 lifts above the surface its light clusters of pink 

 blossom on leafless stalks. The fibrous leaves 

 are thickly matted beneath the water. Only in 

 the colour of its blossoms does this plant even 

 remotely resemble a violet ; it is one of the 

 primrose tribe, though on a casual glance it 

 rather resembles the April cuckoo-flower of the 

 meadows beyond its pools. In the same pools 

 later in the summer the rarer bladderwort raises 

 its yellow spikes, and the yellow villarsia floats 

 its fringed blossoms. Here, too, as well as by 

 the calmer shores of the outer current, the 

 tall water-plantain opens in July its pink, 

 three-petalled blossoms among its large leaves, 

 which are like those of a common plantain much 

 magnified. The same ditches produce the scarcer 

 arrowhead, with its curious, barbed leaves and pink, 

 three-petalled flowers of larger size. On many oozy 

 shores the forget-me-not spreads broad banks of 

 brilliant turquoise blossom, often contrasting vividly 

 with the parched grass of the marly meadows above. 

 The wild forget-me-not is a true aquatic ; its whole 

 habit is larger and more luxuriant than that of its 



