Arrow-Head
Sagittaria variabilis. Water-plantain Family.
Scape.--A few inches to several feet high. Leaves.--Arrow-shaped. Flowers.--White; unisexual; in whorls of three on the leafless scape. Calyx.--Of three sepals. Corolla.--Of three white, rounded petals. Stamens and Pistils.--Indefinite in number; occurring in different flowers; the lower whorls of flowers usually being pistallate, the upper staminate. Among our water-flowers none are more delicately lovely than those of the arrow-head. Fortunately the ugly and inconspicuous female flowers grow on the lower whorls, while the male ones, with their snowy petals and golden centers, are arranged about the upper part of the scape, where the eye first falls. It is a pleasure to chance upon a slow stream whose margins are bordered with these fragile blossoms and bright, arrow-shaped leaves.