Tas. 6536. 
NYMPHANA TUBEROSA. 
Native of Eastern North America. 
Nat. Ord. NympHmAacex.—Suborder Nympaxn. 
Genus Nympuma, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p, 46.) 
NympaZza tuberosa; rhizomate repente tuberifero, tuberibus ovoideis solitariis v. 
confertis, foliis submersis breviter petiolatis membranaceis lobis divaricatis, 
natantibas magnis rotundatis, lobis approximatis acutis, subtus pallide viridibus 
v. flavescentibus v. fusco-purpureis, floribus 4-7 poll. diam. fere inodoris, sepalis 
4 viridibus, petalis numerosis oblongo-oblanceolatis obtusis albis, staminibus 
extimis connectivo producto cuspidato, seminibus sessilibus globoso-ovoideis, - 
arillo obsoleto v. brevi cupulari rarias completo. 
N. tuberosa, A. Paine, Cat. Pl. Oneida, in Report of Regents of University of 
New York, 1865, p. 1382; 4. Gray, Man. Bot. NV. U. States (ed. 5), p. 56. 
It was not till 1865 that two species of White Water Lily 
were established as indigenous in the United States of 
America (though the veteran botanist Nuttall evidently 
believed it), when the subject of the present plate was 
- carefully distinguished from the common American Water 
Lily, by a young local botanist, Mr. A. Paine. As 
cultivated in England, the characters are not very obvious 
whereby it is distinguished from N. odorata or N. alba, if 
the creepirg rhizome be not examined, and so similar, 
indeed, are these plants in flower and leaf, that I was 
obliged to have recourse to raising the pot in which this 
grew, for the purpose of verifying the drawing by an 
examination of the root; when this is found to bear tubers 
along the side of the rootstock, which are wanting in the 
other American and the European species. Other characters 
are the faint scent of N. tuberosa compared with the 
delicious odour of odorata, the larger leaves, the crescent- 
shaped stipules, more numerous veins of the leaf, and 
more globose seeds, with a usually incomplete aril. 
_ Nympheea tuberosa is a native of lakes and slow-running - 
JANUARY lst, 1881. 
