Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1911 — An Elusive Water Lily. [ARTICLE]

An Elusive Water Lily.

The water lily of tbe Amazon has very elusive habits. The buds open twice, tbe first time just a chink at the tip in the early sunrise hours, a sort of premonitory symptom. On the following evening it spreads its four sepals with such alacrity that you can see them move. But the big white bud among them remains unchanged until 4 o’clock in the morning, when it hurriedly spreads its, blossom wide open, remaining in this condition only half an hour. Within the hour It has nearly closed, and by another hour and a half tbe entire flower has been drawn under water by tbe coiling of tbe stalk.