PROPAGATION" OF WILD-DUCK FOODS. 
11 
DISTRIBUTION. 
> 
1 
1 
often having ribbonlike leaves, may be recognized by the reticula- 
tion of the entire leaf into small cells by veins of nearly uniform size. 
In certain stages some of the arrowheads (Sagittaria) are difficult 
to distinguish from wild celery, though they usually have the end 
of the leaf expanded into a proper leaf 
blade or else quite pointed, neither of which 
characteristics is to be found in Vallisneria. 
Investigation of the subterranean organs 
will decide the matter, however. For a de- 
scription of those of Sagittaria see pages 
25-26. 
The flowers of wild celery, usually seen 
in July, are peculiar. The staminate 
flowers, at first attached at the base of 
the plants, later float on the surface of 
the water and fertilize the pistillate 
flower. The latter is attached to a long, 
slender, round stem, which contracts into a 
spiral, drawing the flower under the water 
after fertilization. This spiral stem, bear- 
ing the flower or pod (fig. 4), distinguishes 
wild celery from the other plants men- 
tioned. The seed pod into which the pol- 
lenized flower develops is straight or 
curved, a little slenderer than a common 
lead pencil, and from 3 to 6 inches long 
(fig. 6). It contains, embedded in a clear 
jelly, small dark seeds, in number about 50 
to the inch. No such pod is borne by any 
other fresh- water plant. 
% 
Wild celery occurs naturally from cen- 
tral Minnesota through the Great Lake re- 
gion to northern Nova Scotia, and from 
eastern Kansas and eastern Texas east to 
the Atlantic coast (fig. 7). Like wild rice 
it is of more or less local distribution, and consequently may be 
absent from considerable areas within its general range. 
B390M 
Fig. 5. — Leaves of wild celery, 
showing venation. (Natural 
size.) 
PROPAGATION. 
Wild celery is comparatively easy to transplant. It can be propa- 
gated both by seeds and by winter buds, and the plant itself may be 
taken up and set out at almost any time. Floating fragments of the 
