140 THE WATERLILIES. 



Nymphaea stellata Willdenow. 



Leaves elliptic-orbicular, rather broadly peltate ; margin irregularly sinuate; lobes 

 obtuse; upper surface green; pink or blue-violet beneath. Flower 5 to 12 cm. across, 

 pale blue (varying to pink or white) , open from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m. Buds ovate ; 

 sepals with minute blackish dots. Petals n to 14, dull white at base; stamens 33 to 54; 

 appendage blue, anthers and filaments pale yellowish. 



Nymphaea stellata, Willdenow 1797. Andrews tab. 330. Aiton 1811. DeCandolle 18216, 1824. 



Wight & Arnott 1834. Planchon 1853 6. Rev. Hortic., 1854 a, 1855 b, col. plate. Caspary 



1865 in part ; 1877. Conard 1901 a. 

 Castalia stellaris, Salisbury 1806 a. 

 N. malabarica, Poiret, in Lamarck 1802, fid. original specimen coll. Sonnerat, Isle de France, from 



hb. Lamarck, in hb. Paris. 

 N. stellata var. parviflora, Hooker & Thomson, 1855. 



DESCRIPTION. Flowers small, 5 to 13 cm. across, open on three successive days 

 from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m., nearly odorless. Bud oblong, ovate, rounded at apex. 

 Peduncle terete, slender, rising well above the water-surface. Sepals 4, oblong, sub- 

 ovate-triangular, breadth : length = i : 2.8 to 3.5, margins nearly straight toward the 

 apex; outer surface light green, uniform or marked with minute dark purplish lines; 

 inner surface bluish-white. Petals 10 to 16, lanceolate, acute, shorter than the sepals, 

 pale blue above, yellowish-white at base. Stamens 33 to 54, with small blue appen- 

 dage; anthers and filaments pale yellow. Carpels 10 to 17; styles short-triangular, 

 usually apiculate, obtuse ; breadth: length = I : I to 1.5 ; stigmatic ray terminating on 

 the style in a short obtuse triangle, breadth : length = i : 0.5 to 0.7. Stigma slightly con- 

 cave.- Seed elliptic globose, diameter : length = 0.8 : 0.9 mm. ; = 0.8 : i.o mm., gray. 



Leaf of adult plant rather broadly peltate ; breadth of pelta : depth of sinus = i : 

 6 to 10; outline sub-orbicular-elliptic, 12 to 15 cm. in diameter, irregularly sinuate- 

 repand, or subentire, rounded or slightly retuse at apex ; upper surface bright green, 

 sometimes faintly brownish blotched ; under surface purplish to deep blue-violet, with 

 green veins. Primary veins 9 to n on each side of leaf ; length of principal area : 

 radius of leaf =1:1.4 to 1.6. Sinus deep, usually open; margins nearly straight; 

 angles slightly produced, acute or obtuse. Rhizome ovoid. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. Southern and southeastern Asia and neighboring is- 

 lands, Java, Borneo, and the Philippines. Malabar, Tanjore in India (Hainan, coll. 

 C. M. & A. Henry, No. 8382). 



Var. cyanea (.Roxburgh) Hooker & Thomson. 



Flowers of medium size, blue, with faint odor or none. 



Nymphaea cyanea, Roxburgh 1824. Wight & Arnott 1834. 

 N. stellata p, Sims 1819. Planchon 1853 b. 



Var. versicolor (Roxburgh) Hooker & Thomson. (Plate VII.) 



Flowers of medium size, pink; stamens numerous. Leaves sinuate, pink beneath, 

 marked above and below with pustules I to 2 mm. in diameter. 



Nymphaea versicolor, Roxburgh, in Sims 1809. Roxburgh 1814, 1824. Planchon 1853 b. 

 N. punctata, Edgeworth 1845 = N. Edgeworthiii.ehma.nn 1852 b, fid. original specimen, coll. M. P. 

 Edgeworth, 1844, Sadhoura, India, in hb. Kew. Not N. punctata Kar. & Kir. 1841 ? 



