WATER-LILY FAMILY 



unpleasant odor, and flies and beetles are plentiful 

 about them. The roots are said to have been used by 

 the Indians as food. 



AMERICAN LOTUS. CHINQUIPIN 



Nelumbo hitea 



Large, bold, aquatic herbs, with long-petioled, orbicular 

 leaves and large cream-white flowers of Pond-Lily type. 

 Massachusetts, Ontario to Minnesota, southward to 

 Florida. 



Rootstocks. — Thick, tuberiferous, which creep in the 

 earth at the bottom of ponds and shallow waters. Edible. 



Leaves. — Long-petioled, orbicular, often somewhat con- 

 stricted in the middle, centrally peltate, prominently 

 ribbed, glabrous above, more or less pubescent beneath. 

 Submerged leaves small and scale-like. 



Flowers. — Solitary, large, showy, four to ten inches 

 across, cream-white; peduncles thick, tall with several 

 large air-canals. 



Sepals. — Four to five, imbricate in bud. 



Petals. — Many, obovate, obtuse, concave, inserted on 

 the calyx, erect, spreading. 



Stamens. — Many, inserted on the calyx, filaments more 

 or less petaloid; anthers introrse and appendaged. 



Pistil. — Many distinct carpels embedded in pits in a 

 large convex receptacle. Styles short. 



Fruit. — Nuts resembling acorns, embedded in a large, 

 obconic, flat-topped receptacle two and a half to three 

 inches across; edible. 



Pollinated by beetles and flies. Stigmas mature before 

 the stamens. 



It is not often that the American Lotus appears 

 by the roadside; indeed, the most, and perhaps only, 



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