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.