ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 789 
the name of the Clotey Stour, nuphar being called dotes in 
Dorset. 
In a poem entitled “ Naighbour Playmeates 55 we have the 
following :— 
“ 0 Jay betide the dear wold mill, 
My naighbour playmeates 5 happy hwome, 
Wi’ rollen wheel, and leapen foam, 
Below the overhangen hill, 
Where, wide an 5 slow. 
The stream did flow, 
An 5 flags did grow, an’ lightly vlee 
Below the grey-leav’d withy tree, 
While clack, clack, clack, vrom hour to hour, 
Wi 5 whilin stwone, an’ streamen flour, 
Did goo the mill by cloty Stour.”— Barnes. 
The Stour, and all the Dorset and Somerset streams, are 
full of this plant, so are many of our now little used canals. 
The larger flowered form is the most common. 
Syme, in the new edition of f English Botany/ makes out 
three forms of this plant, namely, N. lutea , var. a major , 
N. lutea, var. j3 minor, and N. pumila , but we agree with 
Bentham’s remarks that it is fully as common and in many 
places more so, than the white water-lily with the same 
geographical range, certainly more general in Britain. FI. 
all summer. It varies much in size, and in the number of 
the stigmatic rays. A very small form, with a more indented 
stigmatic disk found in the lakes of the north of Scotland, 
has been distinguished as a species under the names of N. 
pumula and N. minima or N. minor, but we quite agree that 
the characters are not sufficiently distinctive to make out 
species . 
The yellow water-lily formerly was reputed both as a 
medicine and a food, but in the present day it has fallen in 
repute for any utility whatever. At the same time it is a 
very interesting plant, and is besides a nidus for the attach¬ 
ment of very curious creatures, e. g. fresh-water shells attach 
themselves to the under part of the expanded leaves, so also 
the eggs of various aquatic creatures. Before now we have 
seen the under parts of the leaves of the yellow water-lily 
to contain a complete museum of organisms, so that we 
strongly recommended the naturalist never to overlook this 
source of instruction. 
Like the former this species is not held in the repute that 
formerly attached to it; still it is a plant much esteemed 
in the country and certes a river is much enriched by its 
presence. It is a bright yellow colour in contrast with 
