These water plants are very interesting. They are always competing with one another. There is a perpetual struggle going on round every pond and loch, and by every river side. If you look carefully round the edge of a loch or pond which lies in a grass field, certain series of plants are generally found to follow one another in quite a definite way. The first sign of water in grass is generally the presence of moss or "fog" between the grass-stems and the appearance of what farmers call the "Blue Carnation Grass." It is not a grass but a sedge (_Carex glauca_ or _C. panicea_) with leaves rather like those of a carnation. A little nearer the border of the pond, there may be a tall coarse grass (_Aira caespitosa_ or _Festuca elatior_). Next there is almost certain to be a fringe of Rushes. Where the Rushes begin to find the ground too wet for them, all sorts of marsh plants flourish, such as Water Plantain, Cuckoo-flower, the Spearwort Buttercup, Woundwort, and the like. As soon as the actual water begins, one finds, whilst it is still shallow, the Flag series of yellow or purple Irises, Bogbeans, Marsh Cinquefoil, Mare's Tail, and Sedges of various kinds. In this part the water ranges from an inch or two to about eighteen inches deep. The Flag or Iris is a very common and yet interesting plant. It has a stout, fleshy stem lying flat on the mud, and anchored to it by hundreds of little roots. The flower is the original of the Fleur-de-lis, or Lily of France, which took the fancy of the King of France as he rode through the marshes towards Paris. (It is true that there are some unromantic authors who hold that the emblem was really intended to represent a frog or toad!) The flower consists of three upright petals and three hollow sepals, which make so many canals leading down to the honey, and roofed over by an arched and coloured style. As the bee hurries down the canal to its nectar, its back is first brushed by a narrow lip-like stigma and then dusted with pollen. The leaves overlap in a curious way, and, when they have withered, their stringy remains serve to protect the fleshy stem. _Orris root_, which is used in perfumery, is the stem of the _Iris florentina_. Most of the other plants in this Flag series will be found to have prostrate main stems growing under the water, but giving off flowering and foliage stems which stand up above it, so that the leaves and flowers are above the surface.