228 Flashlights ox NAxrRE 



for growth next season. About tin- time when the 

 pond j^rows cool, the Inuls detacli themselves, like 

 the winter shoots of the pond-weed, and slowlv 

 descend by their own weight to the bottom. But 

 they do not root themselves there, as the pond-weed 

 shoo s did ; thev merely lie bv, like the whirli<4i_<f 

 beetles, as you can see one of them preparing to 

 do in the left-hand corner of No. lo. All the 

 livin<4 material is drained from the leaves into 

 these winter bulbs. The pond freezes over, and 

 the renmant of the floating leaves decav ; but the 

 bulbs lurk quietly in the warm mud of the bottom, 

 piotected by a coverinj.^ of close-fitting scale- 

 leaves. 



In No. I I we learn the end of this quaint little 

 domestic drama. Spring has come, and the pond 

 has thawed aj^ain. Tiie winter buds of the frogbit 

 now undergo certain spongy internal changes, due 

 to warmth and growth, which make them lighter 

 — lessen their specific gravity. Air-cells are deve- 

 loped in them. So they begin to rise again like 

 bubbles to the surface. You can see in the illus- 

 tration one bud still entangled in the slime on the 

 bottom ; another just starting to emerge ; a third 

 rising ; and a fourth and hfth on the surface of 

 the pool. Two more have already risen ; one of 

 these is just putting forth its first few kidney-shaped 

 leaves ; another has now grown pretty strong, and 

 is sending out a runner, from which a third little 

 plant is even beginning to develop. In time, hun- 

 dreds of such runners are sent forth in every 

 direction, till the surface of the pond, in suitable 



