cel 
winters, if the roots be plunged in water, deep enough to 
protect them from the frost, and raised near to the surface 
during summer. But I am not very sanguine in hoping 
that it will be brought to flower in the open air, or in 
water, warmed only by the sun, as those plants which are 
above the water, such as Ponreprria cordata, Hiptscus 
palustris, &c., appear to require a greater degree of heat for 
this purpose than our summers afford. My experience, 
however, is confined to this county (Lancashire), where 
the climate is inferior to that of our eastern and southern 
counties.” 
Descr. The root, according to Nurratt, “ consists of 
tubers, resembling those of the Sweet Potato, connected by 
running fibres, and which are, when boiled, as farinaceous 
and agreeable as the Potato, and are employed for food by 
the Osage and other western Indians.”” The petioles (four 
feet long,) and peduncles are frequently slightly muricated, 
but as often smooth. Leaves large, a foot and a half, to 
two feet broad, peltate; a very small one only is here repre- 
sented. Flower, in its general structure, precisely the same 
as that of N. speciosum: the anthers, however, are tipped 
with a yellow, falcate appendage. Fruit (here taken from 
specimens gathered by Mr. Drummonp in Louisiana,) con- 
sisting of a large, obconical receptacle, or torus, with 
numerous cells at the flattened top, in which the achenia, 
resembling small acorns, lie quite loose, and rattle when 
the entire fruit is shaken. 
Fig. 1. Stamen, magnified. 2. Fruit, nat. size. 
