154 



THE NATURALIST. 



Boraginacece, and is a true aquatic, with a long rooting stem and bright 

 green roughish pubescent leaves. In close proximity to its lovely clusters the 

 Water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquaUUs, moors her green rafts, freighted with 

 nymph-like flowers, milky white but for their golden boss of yellow-stamens ; 

 and floating islands of the Frog-bit, Hydrocliaris Morsus-rance, powdered 

 with petalous snow, pass by with unseen motion ; nearer the bank the 

 "Water- Violet, Hottonia palustris, sends up its solitary stalks and delicate 

 flesh-coloured corollas, a floral beacon above a sunken reef of fringy leaves ; 

 here, too, the curious Bladder-wort, Utricularia vulgaris, bears its bright 

 yellow flowers in racemes, its shoots or runners floating horizontally in the 

 water, clothed, as are those of the Water-crowfoot, with capillary or hair-like 

 multifid leaves, which in the Bladder-worts are furnished, as well as the roots 

 and stems, with minute bladders, which are filled with water till it is 

 necessary the plant should rise to the surface to expand its blossoms, at which 

 time they are found to contain only air ; by the aid of these the plant floats, 

 but in autumn it descends to the bottom to ripen its seeds, when the air again 

 gives place to water. Wilson has observed of the bladders of Utricularia 

 vulgaris, also called Hooded Milfoil, that " they have an orifice closed by an 

 elastic valve opening inwards, and of a much thinner texture than the bladder 

 to which it is attached." Aquatic insects are frequently found entrapped in 

 their treacherous vescicles. 



Not less wonderful is the contrivance observable in the loveliest of our in- 

 digenous aquatic plants, the white water-lily, Nymplicea alba, which through 

 the balmy sunshine of July lifts above its peltate floating leaves, its cup-shaped 

 flowers filled with golden stamens, wliich unfold about seven in the morning, 

 and close soon after four in the afternoon. If we watch them we shall find 

 that the cup, which is slightly elevated in the forepart of the day, shrinks 

 down close to the surface of its fluid bed at night, and by and by, when the 

 the fructification is complete, descends entirely beneath the surface ; a move- 

 ment which is affected by the stems assuming a spiral form, a ad thus drag- 

 ging the flower to the bottom. The white water-lily is one of the greatest 

 ornaments of the English and Scotch lake districts ; while the yellow one, 

 Nupliar lutea more commonly occurs in slow streams and stagnant pools. 

 N. pumila is not commonly to be met with. To this tribe Nymphmaceoe 

 belong the magnificent Victoria regia, or royal water-lily of South America, 

 the size of which is in keeping with the gigantic proportions of the Amazon and 

 Essequibo, on whose waters it displays its beauty, is unrivalled in the vege- 

 table world — and the Ked Lotus or Bengal Lily, rendered so tragically famous 



