Vallisneria madness

On a warm evening, Tom Spencer finds himself perched on the terrace of a grand mansion, listening to an eccentric botany professor speak of a secret that lives beneath a quiet garden pool. The professor describes the vallisneria, an exotic aquatic plant whose male and female flowers rise only once a year, under the full moon, to perform a brief, tragic courtship. He reads a poetic passage that likens the flowers' desperate climb and sudden death to the fleeting intensity of love itself.

Intrigued and a little uneasy, Spencer is warned to stay at the terrace’s edge, for the blooming flowers release a narcotic perfume that can overwhelm the senses. As twilight deepens and mist crowns the water, the professor promises the young guest a view of the strange moonlit mating that scholars would trade their “eye‑teeth” to see. The scene sets a contemplative mood, inviting listeners to ponder the fragile beauty of nature’s hidden dramas.