Tas. 4257. 
NYMPHAEA pDENTATA. 
Tooth-leaved Lotus. 
Nat. Ord. NympHa#acex.—PoLyanpria Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. Sepala ad basin tori. Petala staminaque cum toro carpella tegente 
longe adnata et bacca ideo quasi semi-infera cicatrisata—Flores ampli, albi, rosei, 
rubri aut cerulei, nunquam lutei. DC. 
Nyrmpu#a dentata ; foliis peltatis argute dentatis utrinque glabris nervis subtus 
valde prominentibus, calyce tetraphyllo vittato basi insigniter truncatim 
depresso. 
Nympu#a dentata. Schum. et Thonn., Guin. Plant. p. 249. Walp. Repert. v. 1. 
p. 107. 
From the rich collection of Messrs. Lucombe and Pince, 
Exeter. The roots were brought from Sierra Leone by Mr. 
Whitfield, and produced their handsome flowers in the aquarium 
of the stove in August, 1846. Aquatic plants are, generally 
speaking, widely dispersed and not a little variable ; so that it 
behoves us to adopt new species among them with great caution. 
There can be no doubt that the plant here figured is nearly allied 
to the celebrated Mymphea Lotus, an inhabitant of the Nile, 
figured in Andrews’ ‘ Botanist’s Repository,’ tab. 391, and to 
NV. thermalis, DC., a native of Hungary, represented in Sims 
Bot. Mag. t. 797 (under the name of WV. Lotus); but if those 
delineations be accurate, the present is surely a different species, 
as well as an inhabitant of a widely different country: or, if 
the same, then are the plates most inaccurate, for neither in the 
base of the calyx, nor in the underside of the leaf, 1s there any 
similarity. Our plant seems to be unquestionably the NV. dentata 
of Schumacher and Thonning, above quoted, which is a native 
of still waters on the coast of Guinea; and we have therefore so 
called it. Palisot de Beauvois’ species of NV. Lotus from the west 
coast of Africa, appears to be identical with ours, and perhaps 
should be quoted under WV. dentata. The singularly prominent 
and glabrous venation on the underside of the leaf (similar to that 
of Huryale ferox, and of the Victoria regia), the large flowers, and 
OCTOBER Ist, 1846. 21 
