water lentil, water lens

Bot.: The genus Lemna (q. v.). water-lettuce, s. Bot.: Pistia stratiotes. ( West Indian.) water-level, s. 1. The level formed by the surface of still water. 2. A leveling instrument in which water is em ployed instead of spirit. It consists of a metal tube, bent at both ends, in which are fitted gla tubes. It is placed on a tripod, and water poured in until it rises in both legs. When the liquid is at rest, the level of the water in both tubes is the same; that is, they are both in the same horizontal plane. water-lily, s. Bot .: The popular name for various plants of the order Nymphæacee, the resemblance of which to the Lilium, or true lily genus, is not close, they being exogenous and it endogenous. The White Water-lily is Nymphœa alba , the Yellow Water-lily, Nuphar lutea. "Where among the water - lilies Pishnekuh, the brant, were sailing." Long fellow: Hiawatha, xvii. water-lime, s. Hydraulic lime. water-line, s . (q. v.). water-hen, s. Ornith.: Gall in ulus chloropus , generally distributed throughout the world. Length of male about thirteen inches; back, wings, rump, and tail rich dark olive-brown; head, neck, breast, and sides dark slate gray: thighs and flanks streaked with white, belly and vent grayish white; under tail coverts white; beak yellowish, becoming red, as Pennant notes, in the breeding season; naked patch on forehead red; red garter above tarsal joint; legs and toes greenish-yellow, claws dark-brown. The female rather larger and more vividly-colored than the male. They frequent ponds covered with aquatic IMG:content-0705.png:[blocks in formation] slow rivers, swimming and diving with facility, a isted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides of the toes.