WATER-LILIES 105 
precipitate, with sulphate of iron.” It gra- 
ciously consents to become an astringent and a 
styptic, and a poultice, and, banished from all 
other temples, still lingers in those of AEscula- 
pius. 
The botanist also finds his special satisfac- 
tions in the flower. It has some strange peculi- 
arities of structure. So loose is the internal 
distribution of its tissues, that it was for some 
time held doubtful to which of the two great 
vegetable divisions, exogenous or endogenous, 
it belonged. Its petals, moreover, furnish the 
best example of the gradual transition of petals 
into stamens, — illustrating that wonderful law 
of identity which is the great discovery of mod- 
ern science. Every child knows this peculiar- 
ity of the water-lily, but the extent of it seems 
to vary with season and locality, and sometimes 
one finds a succession of flowers almost entirely 
free from this confusion of organs, 
The reader may not care to learn that the 
order of Nymphzeacez “ differs from Ranuncu- 
laceze in the consolidation of its carpels, from 
Papaveraceze in the placentation not being pari- 
etal, and from Nelumbiacez in the want of a 
large truncated disc containing monospermous 
‘achenia ;” but they may like to know that the 
water-lily has relations on land, in all gradations 
of society, from poppy to magnolia, and yet 
