Water Lily. 289 



" His flame-color'd robe is imposing, 'tis true ; 

 " Yet, who likes it so well as your mantle of blue ? 

 " For we know that of innocence one is the vest ; 

 " The other the cloak of a treacherous breast. 



" I see your surprise— but I know him full well, 

 " And have number'd his victims, as fading they fell ; 

 lt He blighted twin Violets that under him lay, 

 "And poison'd a sister of mine the same day !" 

 The Primrose was silent — the Harebell, 'tis said, 

 Inclined for a moment her beautiful head ; 

 But quickly recovered her spirits, and then 

 Declared that she ne'er should feel envy again. 



Water Lily. 



This plant is in the class Polyandria ; order Monogynia. The 

 generic name is derived from Nymph, a Naiad of streams ; its 

 characters are calyx four, five or six leaved. Corolla many 

 petalled : Berry, many celled, truncated. Specific characters : 

 —Leaves cordate, quite entire: Lobes imbricated, rounded: 

 calyx four leaved. This aquatic plant, observes Lindley, of- 

 fers in its stem no precise character by which we may refer it 

 either to the Endogens or Exogens. Its leaves, moreover, are 

 referable as much to the type of the one as the other. Its 

 flowers consist of about twenty-five thickish oblong leaves of 

 a dazzling white color, and the five external ones more or less 

 green at the back in representation of a calyx ; these leaves 

 grow gradually smaller and smaller toward the centre, till at 

 last their points become callous and yellow ; at length bear a 

 pair of short anther lobes in the room of the yellow callosity ; 

 these again narrow into straps, having more perfect anthers at 

 the points, and finally next the ovary, shorten and diminish, pro- 

 ducing less perfect anthers. What we have called anther-bear- 

 ing petals are obviously stamens. Do not suppose the Water 

 Lily offers in this respect an exception to general rules ; in all 

 cases the stamens are nothing but contracted and altered 

 petals provided with anthers; only in this instance the transi- 

 tion is gradual and apparent, in others it is too abrupt to be 



