126 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



New Jersey. This bears large, yellow flowers, 3 to 10 on the 

 scape. The leaf-stalks are swollen, and the capillary leaves 

 have small bladders. 



23 



U. corniita bears showy, fragrant flowers, i inch long, with 

 a large helmet-shaped lower lip and long, curved spur. 



24. Water-weed 



Elodea Canadensis. — Family, Frog's-bit. Color, greenish. 

 Leaves, sessile, pellucid, long and narrow, or oval, small, 

 whorled, in threes and fours, or opposite, i-nerved. Time, 

 July. 



A small, slender herb, growing its stems and leaves under water, 

 but bringing its pistillate flowers to the surface by stretching the 

 tube of the corolla till it reaches the top of the water. This tube 

 is thin and thread-like. The staminate flowers break off early, 

 scattering their pollen on the top of the water around the stigmas 

 of the pistillate flowers. 



Tape, or eel-grass ( Valisnkri'a spiralis), belongs to this family. 

 Its ribbon-like leaves grow 6 feet long. It is common and well 

 known. 



25. Pickerel-weed 



Poniederia cordata. — Family, Pickerel-weed. Color, blue. 

 Leaves, thick, triangular, heart or arrow shaped, on long, thick 

 stalks, mostly from root. A single leaf grows on thg flower- 

 spike. Time, July to September. 



Perianth, tubular, 2-divided. The upper lip notched twice ; 

 the lower lip parted into 3 narrow divisions. The upper lip 

 is marked with a pair of yellow spots. Stamens, 6, 3 of them 

 often worthless, i to 4 feet long. 



After fruiting, the flower perianth coils from the apex down- 

 ward and surrounds the fruit. 

 The plant bears bright -blue flowers in a thick spike, which 



