36 PLANTS GROWING IN WATER. 



group of insectivorous plants, those that are so formed as to 

 entrap insects, which they digest and assimilate as food. In 

 this way, by taking advantage of defenseless members of the 

 animal world, they show a very unprincipled disregard of all 

 plant tradition. But aside from the moral consideration, this 

 little plant is most wonderful. The bladders are furnished with 

 small hairs or bristles which keep up a wavy motion and create 

 a sort of current that sucks the unsuspicious creature within its 

 folds. A hinged arrangement, or lid then closes sharply down 

 upon him, and the bristles make it their business to see that he 

 does not escape. 



But from our childhood we are taught that an object cannot 

 sink that has attached to it a bladder filled with air. We there- 

 fore ask, how does the bladderwort reach the bottom of the 

 pond to spend the winter ? Simply because the little plant is 

 clever. It takes time by the forelock, ejects the air from its 

 bladders, and calmly allows them to fill with water. They then 

 bear it below, where it remains while its seeds are ripening, 

 and until it feels the spring sunshine thrilling it with a desire 

 to rise again and to bloom. The bladders then, with small cer- 

 emony, throw out the no longer useful water ; the plant rises, 

 and they fill again with air which floats it during the summer. 



ARROW=HEAD. {Plate IX) 

 Sagittaria latifblia, 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Water-plantain. White. Scentless. General. All summer. 



Flowers : growing in whorls of three on a leafless scape. Calyx : open ; of 

 three sepals that fall early. Corolla : open ; of three rounded petals. Stamens: 

 very numerous, on the receptacle. Pistils : distinct ; very numerous. The 

 flowers are imperfect : the pistillate ones being those of the lower whorls and 

 the staminate ones those of the upper whorls. Leaves : sagittate ; nerved. 

 Scape : varying greatly in height. 



The demure arrow-heads are surely the Quakers of the 

 flower world ; and that they do not condone frivolity, we may 

 gather from the way in which they keep their pistillate and 



