112 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
Only the blossoms show that the plants are rep- 
resentatives of four widely-divergent botanical fam- 
ilies. 
Of all parts of the plant, the leaf is most sub- 
ject to change, and the readiest, like Poo Bah, to 
fill all offices at once. 
The same plant may bear two kinds, differing in 
form and in habits. 
Some water-plants have both floating and sub- 
merged leaves. The floating foliage breathes at- 
mospheric air, and the submerged foliage lives, as 
fishes do, by breathing the air which is in the 
water. The water-crowfoot, for instance, bears 
some floating leaves, and some which live beneath 
the surface. The floating leaves are broad, like 
those of the plant’s near relations, the meadow 
buttercups, but those which live in the water are 
fringed. 
In the common arrow-head, another amphibi- 
ous vegetable, the submerged leaves are long and 
narrow, like blades of grass, and the . terrestrial 
ones are arrow-shaped. Every leaf which spends 
its life under water, whatever its family habits and 
traditions may be, and whatever its erial sisters 
may look like, is either a fringe or a narrow rib- 
bon. Thus submerged foliage is doubly fitted for 
