148 



A TOUK ROUND MY GARDEN. 



surface, and does not rise again. It is there the fruit is 

 formed and ripened, and the seed it contains will be sovm in 

 the earth at the bottom of the pool. 



In another comer is the yellow-blossomed water-lily, whose 

 flower is simple, but whose habits are exactly the same aa 

 the other. 



There is another plant which lives equally in the waters, 

 but which is not to be found in our gardens; it is the vallis- 

 neria. It has not, as the water-lily, the male and female 

 united in the same corolla; they are upon two different 

 flowers, as we have already seen in the case with some other 

 plants ; but here the separation, appears more cruel and more 

 invincible. The female flowers are placed upon a long spiral 

 footstalk, by means of which they bloom on the surface, like 

 those of the water-lily ; whilst the male flowers are retained 



Vj^LLISNERIA. 



at the bottom, and at a great depth, by a very short stalk. 

 But at the proper season, the male flower detaches itself, 

 ascends in a state of freedom to the surface, lavishes his 

 caresses, and is carried away by the current. The female 

 flower then returns under water, to mature and sow its seed. 



Here the openogeton dystachion, a white flower, with black 

 stamens, exhales a sweet odour of vanUla from its coroUa, 

 which resembles a shell ; whilst the menyanthus, which lives 



