This curious water-plant may or may not have roots; in either case it is not fastened to the ground, but is floated by means of the many bladders which are borne on its finely dissected leaves. It is commonly found in ponds and slow streams, flowering throughout the summer. Thoreau calls it “a dirty-conditioned flower, like a sluttish woman with a gaudy yellow bonnet.”
The horned bladderwort, U. cornuta, roots in the peat-bogs and sandy swamps. Its large yellow helmet-shaped flowers are very fragrant, less than half a dozen being borne on each scape.
Yellow Pond-lily. Spatter Dock.
Nuphar advena. Water-lily Family.
Leaves.—Floating or erect, roundish to oblong, with a deep cleft at their base. Flowers.—Yellow, sometimes purplish, large, somewhat globular. Calyx.—Of five or six sepals or more, yellow or green without. Corolla.—Of numerous small, thick, fleshy petals which are shorter than the stamens and resemble them. Stamens.—Very numerous. Pistil.—One, with a disk-like, many-rayed stigma.
Bordering the slow streams and stagnant ponds from May till August may be seen the yellow pond-lilies. These flowers lack the delicate beauty and fragrance of the white water-lilies; having, indeed, either from their odor, or appearance, or the form of their fruit, won for themselves in England the unpoetic title of “brandy-bottle.” Owing to their love of mud they have also been called “frog-lilies.” The Indians used their roots for food.
PLATE XLI
INDIAN CUCUMBER-ROOT.—M. Virginiana.
Winter-cress, Yellow Rocket. Herb of St. Barbara.
Barbarea vulgaris. Mustard Family (p. [17]).
Stem.—Smooth. Leaves.—The lower lyre-shaped; the upper ovate, toothed or deeply incised at their base. Flowers.—Yellow, growing in racemes. Pod.—Linear, erect or slightly spreading.
As early as May we find the bright flowers of the winter-cress along the roadside. This is probably the first of the yellow mustards to appear.