WATER MILFOIL. 
smooth, and float on the surface of the water; 
and its flowers are four or five inches wide, and 
have a calyx with white upper surface, often 
tinged with pale red, and have white petals and 
yellow stamens and pistil, and bloom in June 
and July. The whole plant is slightly vascular, 
and exhales rapidly, and becomes very soon dry; 
the leaves have innumerable absorbing pores on 
the under surface, and innumerable exhaling ones 
on the upper surface; the flowers emit a faint 
sweet smell, and expand only in sunshine in the 
middle of the day, and either recline on the wa- 
ter or sink into it when they close toward even- 
ing; and the whole plant, after ripening its seeds 
in autumn, sinks to the bottom to enjoy there its 
winter repose. Hogs eat this plant; goats dis- 
like it; and cows and horses totally reject it. 
The root was eaten in a boiled state by the an- 
cient Egyptians, and is sometimes used as a sub- 
stitute for corn by the modern Swedes,—but 
requires, for all esculent purposes, to be well 
divested of its bitter taste by frequent washings ; 
and it is used in Ireland and the Hebrides for 
dyeing a brown colour, and might be used also 
for tanning and currying leather; and is said to 
| have been found serviceable for the cure of lepro- 
sy. The stems are better than oak-galls for dyeing 
grey; and the seeds were used by the ancient 
Egyptians as a bread-stuff. Young plants ap- 
pear in the following spring from ripe seed-ves- 
sels thrown, immediately after their becoming 
ripe, into still ponds or large ditches; and an 
old plant may be removed by carefully digging 
up the root with a large ball of mud from be- 
neath the water, placing it in an old fish basket, 
and sinking the whole in the place where it is 
intended to remain,—leaving the plant to make 
slow and firm anchorage for itself during the de- 
cay of the basket. 
WATER LILY (Yettow). See Nupwar. 
WATER MEADOW. See Irnrigartion. 
WATER MELON. See Cucumszr. 
WATER MILFOIL, —botanically Myriophyl- 
lum. A small genus of aquatic plants, of the 
haloragis family. The whorled species, J/. verti- 
cillatum, inhabits ponds in some parts of England, 
and carries herbaceous-coloured flowers in July; 
and the spiked species, M/. spicatum, inhabits 
ditches in both England and Scotland, and car- 
ries red flowers from June till August; and both 
have perennial roots, stems about a foot long, 
floating foliage, and a weedy appearance. Some 
tropical species are known. 
WATER MILL. See Miu. 
WATER PARSNIP, — botanically Sium. A 
genus of herbaceous plants, of the umbelliferous 
order. Four species grow wild in Britain ; nearly 
a dozen have been introduced from other coun- 
tries; and upwards of another dozen are known. 
Several are poisonous, and most of the others are 
more or less acrid and dangerous; yet one which 
was long ago introduced from China is culi- 
nary, and will be found described in the article 
631 || 
WATER PEPPER. 
Sxrrrer. All the species in British collections 
are perennial-rooted; some are tuberous, some 
creeping, and some erect and annual-stemmed ; 
two are yellow-flowered and the rest are white- 
flowered ; all are more or less aquatic, and none 
possess any attractions for the florist. 
The broad-leaved water parsnip, Stwm (ati- 
folium, inhabits fens, ditches, and rivulets in 
many parts of Britain. The root is fleshy and 
creeping, and has numerous long fibres; the 
stems are annual, erect, angular, deeply furrow- 
ed, hollow, smooth, leafy, very little branched, 
-and from 2 to 6 feet high; the leaves are pin- 
nate and from 6 to 12 inches long; the leaflets 
are oblong, lanceolate, and equally serrated; the 
flowers come out in both axillary and terminal 
umbels, and are small, numerous, and of a snow- 
white colour, and bloom in July and August; 
the fruit is small and of an elliptic-ovate form; 
and the seeds have an aromatic flavour. The 
whole plant is poisonous; and the roots and her- 
bage of it more so than the seeds. Hogs and 
horses eat it, but sheep abhor it. 
The narrow-leaved water parsnip, Scwm angus- 
tufolium, also inhabits the ditches and rivulets 
of many parts of Britain. It is only about half 
the size of the broad-leaved species. The root 
is extensively creeping; the stem is erect, an- 
nual, cylindrical, striated, and much branched; 
the leaves are simply pinnate; the leaflets are 
unequally lobed and serrated; the umbels are 
stalked opposite to the leaves; the flowers are 
white, and bloom in July and August; and the 
fruit is roundish-ovate, and has three dorsal ribs 
and two lateral ones on each side. 
The procumbent or knot-flowered water pars- 
nip, Sveum nodiflorum, also inhabits the rivulets 
of Britain. It is an evergreen creeper, and has 
seldom a height of more than 6 or 8 inches. The 
stems are cylindrical, hollow, striated, branched, 
of variable length, procumbent or floating, and 
in many instances creeping; the leaflets are 
ovate and equally serrated ; the umbels are near- 
ly sessile, and grow opposite to the leaves; the 
flowers are small, and have a greenish white 
colour, and bloom in July and August; and 
the fruit resembles that of the narrow-leaved 
species, but is more acute in the ribs. The juice 
of this plant has been recommended, very injudi- 
ciously and dangerously, for cutaneous affections. 
The creeping water parsnip, Svwm repens, in- 
habits boggy meadows, watery commons, and 
other moist grounds in various parts of Britain. 
It is smaller than even the procumbent species; 
but resembles it in being a creeping evergreen. 
The stems are slender, quite prostrate, and de- 
cidedly creeping; the leaflets are roundish and 
deeply toothed; and the flowers are white and 
bloom in June. 
WATER PEPPER. Two hardy, floating, aqua- 
tic, annual plants, of respectively the carnation 
and the polygonum families. The common wa- 
ter pepper, Hlatine hydropiper, has a curious ap- 
