196 THE AMERICAN WATER-WEED. [September, 



which it might be subdued or eradicated in sheets of ornamental 

 water^ I shall be sincerely glad if you will favour me with the 

 suggestion, or if you can refer me to any one likely to assist me 

 I shall be equally thankful/' 



I see no symptoms in this part of the country of the Anacharis 

 exhausting itself. Wherever there is water, there will it be. 

 Cut it, and clear it out, and in a few weeks it will be seen dot- 

 ting the bottom with new individuals, each separately rooted. 

 Cold weather checks its growth, while hot encourages it to an 

 extraordinary degree. Drought kills it immediately, and so I 

 believe does frost, and these two facts suggest the laying dry the 

 bottom of ornamental waters, either in summer or in the depth 

 of winter, in order that drought and frost may act upon it. The 

 drought however must be complete, otherwise vitality is retained 

 in the little eyes or " gems" which nestle in the axils of some of 

 the leaves, and these germinate like the axillary buds of some 

 Lilies. 



I may remark, now I am upou the subject, that it flowers in 

 our still waters in the greatest profusion, covering the surface 

 with its tiny blush-coloured flowers and silky threads, but I have 

 never found any but females. From the peculiar character of 

 the female flower (by which I mean the fact that although there 

 are no perfect stamens present^ yet the filaments are always there, 

 wanting only anthers to surmount them to make the flowers per- 

 fectly hermaphrodite), I had expected ere this to hear of the 

 plant having perfected seed, owing to some few of the myriad 

 milhons of flowers which have been developed by it in this coun- 

 try having become hermaphrodite by sporting ; but, although I 

 have carefully examined thousands of flowers in this locality, I 

 have never yet found oue of the filaments bearing an anther on 

 its summit. The seed-vessel is there, and there are seeds lying 

 within it ; the botanist therefore need rot be told how slight a 

 further development of the female flower would render it a per- 

 fect one, and enable the now unhappy denizen to enjoy that con- 

 nubial happiness which has been wanting to it ever since it made 

 its first entrance into this imsocial region. 



Cases are recorded of the female flowers of some dioecious 

 plants {e.g. Hemp, Hops, etc.) producing perfect seeds in the 

 absence of the male. Perhaps then, either by the mode already 

 suggested, or independently of it, perfect seeds may occur, which, 



