2o6 THE WATERLILIES. 



dentate with unequal, distant teeth; primary veins 4; under side dull greenish, suf- 

 fused with red-brown at apex ; upper surface bright green with a narrow red border ; 

 marked above and beneath with radiating blue-black spots. Mature leaf of adult plant 

 40 cm. long, elliptic to orbicular, fissi-cordate, more or less coriaceous ; margins coarsely 

 and unequally sinuate-dentate, with obtuse teeth becoming obsolete at apex of leaf ; 

 lobes touching or distant; margins of sinus irregularly sinuate-dentate. Primary veins 

 7 to II ; length of principal area: length of radius = 1 : 1.07 to 1.5. Upper surface 

 dull greenish, more or less suffused with red-brown, especially toward the margin ; 

 both surfaces marked with a greater or less number of blackish spots. Petiole terete, 

 without ring of hairs at top ; main air-canals 4, the two upper ones larger. Roots 

 6 to 7 from each leaf-base. 



The caudex in the native country vegetates throughout the year and becomes very 

 long and sub-fusiform. Young plants cultivated in central Europe cease growing in 

 winter, forming ellipsoid tubers of the size of a hen's egg or larger. Stolons from 

 tuber cylindric, with i to 4 triangular scale-leaves at base ; later leaves as in seedling 

 plant. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. In still and slow-flowing waters ; tropical America 

 between 18 N. and 22 S., 38 W. and 78 W. Jamaica ; Martinique ; Guiana ; Suri- 

 nam; Brazil (Caspary, 1. c.). Porto Rico (Espinosa 1881). Type collected by Dr. 

 Rodschied in the Essequibo River, British Guiana, in herb. Grisebach (not seen). 



EXAMPLES. Coll. Mosen 2 No. 3339, Prov. S. Paulo, Brazil; coll. Jenman, coast 

 lands of British Guiana, Nov., 1889, No. 5748; coll. Poeppig, No. 2930 and 3033; coll. 

 Burchell, No. 5556. Most of these are marked " N. blanda" in hbb. Kew, British 

 Museum, Delessert, &c. 



NOTES. The above description is taken from Caspary's account in Flora Bra- 

 siliensis. He had the plant under cultivation, introduced by Dr. Moore from Spanish 

 Town, Jamaica, in 1854. We have only seen young plants, in the garden of Oakes 

 Ames, North Easton, Mass., R. M. Grey, gardener. One of these specimens was sent 

 to us by the kindness of Mr. Grey, but, the summer being cool, it did not flower. 



The seeds of this species are used for food by American natives. 



Nymphaea blanda G. F. W. Meyer. (Plate XXI.) 



Sepals densely marked with very slender crimson-brown lines, oblong-ovate, 

 rather obtuse, sub-acuminate. Styles linear-clavate, about 8 mm. long. Peduncle cov- 

 ered throughout (or just below the flower) with septate hairs (glabrous in the var.). 

 Leaves small, membranaceous, entire, cordate-cleft, suborbicular or orbicular-elliptic, 

 apex very broadly rounded ; lobes slightly produced, sub-acuminate and sub-hastate ; 

 pale green, very narrowly peltate (scarcely i mm.). Petiole villous at top, or here 

 and there, or throughout, or (in the var.) glabrous. 



Nymphaea blanda, G. F. W. Meyer 1818. Schomburgk 1848. Seeman 1852. Dalton 1853. Caspary 



1878. Hemsley 1888. Conard 1901 a. 



N. Rudgeana /? Ama:onum, Grisebach 1857. Not N. rudgeana Meyer 1818. 

 N. Fenzliana, Lehmann 1853 a and b; 1854. 

 N. glandulifcra, Rodschied in Meyer 1818. 



