The wild celery seed of Chesapeake Bay, on which the ducks and geese feed, giving the flesh the delicious flavor so much prized by epicureans, is the curious water plant known as Vallisneria spiralis. This plant is among one of the wonders of vegetable life, and always entertains the studious. The leaves are long and grass-like, and the minute flowers have the sexes in separate flowers. At the time of flowering the thread-like flower stalks rise to the top of the water. The male flowers cast their pollen on the surface, and it floats along till caught by the female flowers. The male flowers die after shedding the pollen, but the little female with its embroyo seed vessel draws in the flower stalk as if it were a spiral spring, down to the base of the plant among the grassy leaves, where it remains till mature. It is rare for even the botanist to get to see a seed vessel, and, as one might suppose, one is only to be obtained at all under some difficulty.

One of the surprises to one of our large seedsmen recently was to receive an order for sixteen bushels of the seed!