114
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
mythical. The stout stems from which the leaves and flowers
arise creep along the bottom of ponds, rooting on their under
surfaces. Naturally they are not often in evidence. In the
summer of 1901 the lake in Highams Park, Woodford, was al-
most dried up, and the fine beds of Water-lilies suffered a severe
experience. The leaves withered, and a great carpet of the
rugged green interlacing stems was exposed to the air for many
weeks ; happily the plants in time quite recovered. The glorious
flowers of the Water-lilies need not be described here.
There are many other attractive water plants in the forest
ponds which claim attention, but I will only refer briefly to
three more.
One of the most familiar is the Water Crowfoot, Ranunculus
aquatilis, whose white blossoms appear in sheets on the surface
of the water in summer time. This plant has both floating
and submerged leaves; the former are flat, shining and lobed,
the latter finely divided into numerous hair-like branchlets.
Leaves may be found occasionally combining both forms,
one half of the blade being flat and the other divided into narrow
segments. Like most of the water plants, it is perennial; in
autumn the floating leaves die, while the submerged leaves
live on near the bottom of the pond.
The Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) is common in many
ponds in the forest, and, although often occurring in great abun-
dance, it is inconspicuous from being entirely submerged. Some
of the segments cf the delicate feathery leaves are modified
to form complex bladder-like traps, whose function is to catch
and then absorb the remains of minute water-creatures.3 These
humble, flaccid, rootless water-weeds produce in summer slender
erect racemes of surprising rich-yellow orchid-like flowers,
borne well above the surface of the water, for their affinity is
with the beautiful purple-flowered Butterwort of our northern
bogs. Apart from any seed which may be formed, propaga-
tion in the Bladder-wort is well provided for by the formation
of many winter buds, little balls of closely overlapping
leaves, which during the cold season sink down, and rise again
in the spring to grow into new plants.
Unsurpassed in charm by any water plant that I have men-
tioned is the Water Violet (Hottonia palustris), a plant abundant
in some of the ponds in the south part of the forest. Belonging
3 For a description of the elaborate and sensitive mechanism of the traps, and the way
in which it works. see C. L. Withycombe, "Observations on the Bladderwort; Knowledge,
vol. xxxix., December, 1916: figs 194, 196, 197.