Tab. 6988. 

 NYMPELEA (hybrida) kewensis. 



Garden Hybrid. 



Nat. Ord. Nymph jeace^:. — Tribe Nymphjeje. 

 Genns Nymph^a, Linn.; (JBenth.et Hook.f. Gen. PL vol. i. p. 46.) 



Nymphjea keivensis, Hort. (hybrida inter N. Lotus, var. alha, fern., et N. 



devonientis, mas.). 

 N. kewensis, Gard. Cliron. 1887, vol. ii. p. 366. 



The Botanigal Magazine lias very rarely indeed devoted 

 a plate to a Garden Hybrid. Tins is from no want of 

 appreciation of the interest of such productions in a 

 scientific point of view, and still less from a failing to 

 admire so many of these as beautiful and valuable con- 

 tributions to the resources of horticulture. The reason is 

 that there has always been a wealth of plants of greater 

 interest in a botanical point of view claiming admission to 

 its pages. In the present case, Nymphcea kewensis makes 

 a special appeal to the indulgence of the Magazine, founded 

 on the facts of its being a child of the Institution that 1ms 

 contributed so overwhelming a number of plants to its 

 volumes, and of its having attracted crowds of admiring 

 visitors to the Water-lily house at Kew ;— thus recom- 

 mending itself to perpetuation by a figure. 



Mr. Watson, the able cultivator and propagator of the 

 Tropical houses at Kew, has drawn up forme the following 

 history of the hybrid : — 



"This is the result of a cross made at Kew in 1885 

 between X. Lotus, which has pure white flowers, and N. 

 devoniensis, in which the flowers are deep red, the former 

 being the female parent. The difference between this and 

 .V. devontensis (itself a hybrid) is in colour, N. kewensis 

 being rosy red, except the lower part of the petals, which 

 is almost white; the apex of the petals too is broader and 

 more rounded, and the stamens are narrower and almost 

 orange in colour. Some of the flowers were nine inches in 



AfBiL 1st, 1888. 



