WATER OF ECONOMIC PLANTS, 435 



Carrot family (Umbelliferse), attaining a height of 2 to 3 feet, 

 having compound much -divided leaves. It grows in ditches 

 and watery places. It has thick parsnip-like roots, but differs 

 from the parsnip in forming a cluster of these roots from the 

 same crown. They are poisonous in the highest degree. The 

 smell and flavour being like parsnips has led them to be mis- 

 taken for that root, and many fatal cases have occurred. A few 

 years ago a band of convicts working on the embankments at 

 Woolwich dug up a quantity of the roots, of which seventeen 

 ate, all of whom became seriously ill, and four died ; cattle have 

 also died from eating the roots when thrown out of ditches. 



Water Hemlock. (See Cowbane.) 



Water Lemon. (See Granadilla.) 



Water Lettuce, or Tropical Duckweed, a name in the 

 West Indies for Plstia stratiotes, a floating plant growing on 

 stagnant waters in the tropics ; the plant grows in the form of 

 a rosette, consisting of somewhat spongy wedge-shaped leaves 

 which form an open cup ; its flowers are small and produced 

 from a sheath at the back of the leaves, the whole being of a 

 yellowish colour ; it increases rapidly by sarmenta, quickly 

 covering a large surface of water. In the West Indies it is 

 considered to produce malaria. 



Water Lily, White (Ifj/mphcm alba), TeUow (Nuphar 

 lioica), plants of the Water Lily family (Nymphseacese), natives 

 of this country and common throughout Europe. Nuphar 

 advcna is a native of ITorth America ; its seed-pods (so called) 

 are an important article of food to the Indians, who collect them 

 in large quantities and keep them for winter use. Mymphma 

 cccrulea, K rubra, K dentata, JSf. giyantea, and others, are culti- 

 vated in the gardens of this country, being well known for their 

 beautiful flowers ; also K thermalis, a white flowering species 

 found in Hungary, which appears to be the same as the iV. Lotus 

 of the Mle. It is common in India, where it is held sacred ; 

 likewise in Egypt, where it is found rudely sculptured on the 

 ancient idols (see Lotos), 



Water Melon (Citrullus vulgaris, generally known as Cucu^ 



