220 



LiJSSON^S WITH PLANTS 



only a floating leaf (or frond) and one or more 

 hanging roots. They are -common upon stagnant 

 pools, often covering the water with 

 a blanket of green. Three plants 

 of one of the common kinds are 

 shown, about six times 

 enlarged, in the picture. 

 The flowers (shown at 

 the right) spring from the 

 margin of the frond, and 

 consist of two flowers of 

 a single stamen each and 

 a single pistillate flower, 

 the three borne in a co- 

 rolla-like spathe (determined to be a 

 spathe by the manner in which it 

 arises from the frond and by homol- 

 ogy with related plants). The two 

 locules of the anthers are more or 

 less separated, as if the anther were 

 4-loculed. The presence of the spathe 

 at once removes this plant from those 

 groups which we have chiefly studied, 

 and associates it rather with such types as the 

 calla and narcissus. 



253. In all these various types of flowers we 

 have been able to go beyond the mere external 

 resemblances and to discover some relatively funda- 



FiG. 212. 

 Duckmeat. 



