250 TlMEHRI. 
the most of all the variations in depth of water and 
strength of current. Some do best in a flood, others in 
a drought, one class only in still water and another in 
running streams. Few however can withstand a strong 
current, yet the species of Lacis thrive only among the 
great boulders which form rapids in the larger rivers. 
Even the strongest plants can only hold their own under 
favourable conditions, but the weaker are often most 
tenacious of life. On the most barren soil where hardly 
anything beyond pure water can be obtained some of the 
more delicate plants are at home, and live in peace 
from the very fa6l that there is not sufficient food for 
smotherers. 
There are a few wet savannahs where the soil under 
water is nothing but pipe-clay or sand. Here the sedges 
are few, thin-stemmed and low, and many a little floral 
gem peeps through what looks from a distance like the 
sward of a park. Like the other savannahs however it 
it is far from level, every clump of wiry sedge rising 
from its hummock, with a little moat all round it. 
On the sides of these elevations the tiny rosettes of sun- 
dews and utricularias sit and enjoy life without hin- 
drance. Ground orchids, Sauvagesias, Xyrids, and a 
number of other flowering plants are also scattered 
here and there, giving the field an air of peace and 
tranquillity entirely wanting among the razor grasses* 
For one water plant to fight with another seems quite 
natural, but when climbing plants, that ought to raise 
themselves high in air, begin to run over the water, we 
are inclined to look upon them as intruders. For a con- 
volvulus to overreach another plant is common enough, 
some of them being notorious smotherers. After taking 
