26 PLANTS GROWING IN WATER, 
up vigour, for there is never any procrastination about the 
flowers, sinks to the bottom of the pond and nestles in the mud. 
The warmer water, which is heavier than ice, also remains at the 
bottom. ‘This considerate arrangement of nature’s laws makes 
it, therefore, possible for the fair lily to spend the winter very 
comfortably and no doubt enjoying itself with the water 
nymphs to whom it has been dedicated. 
The plant also illustrates the gradation of sepals into petals 
and petals into stamens, or the metamorphosis of the flower. 
The sepals or transformed leaves are green without but white 
within, so that it is difficult to know with any amount of cer- 
tainty to which set they belong. An inner row of petals is 
found to be tipped with a suggestion of ananther. In the next 
row the anther becomes more pronounced and the petal 
assumes more the shape of a filament. This gradation is con- 
tinued until a perfect stamen is developed. At least, thisis the 
manner in which we are apt to regard the transformation. 
Many writers, however, of whom Mr. Grant Allen is one, con- 
sider that the gradation is in the reverse order and that petals 
are transformed stamens. 
At the close of day the lily folds up its petals, gathers its 
leaves and stems together, and disappears under the water. 
Not a trace of its whereabouts is left: like the Arab it has 
silently stolen away. Moore alludes to this fact in comparing 
the lily to virgins that bathe in the water all night and appear 
more fresh and beautiful in the morning. 
YELLOW POND-LILY. SPATTER DOCK. (Piate ///.) 
Nymphea ddvena. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Water-lily. Yellow, centre tinged npleasant. General. May-August. 
with crimson. 
Flowers : unattractive; solitary. Calyx: of six to eight unequal sepals that 
vary in colour from yellow to green. Corolla: of coarse, fleshy petals that are 
shorter than the stamens. Stamens: numerous. /7sti/: one, the stigma 
spreading like a many-rayed disk. eaves: rising out of the water and having 
a deep space between the rounded lobes. 
The yellow pond-lily is not pretty, and we have no especial 

