Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. X St. Louis, Mo., October, 1922 No. 8 
HYBRID NYMPHAEAS 
The cultivation of the water-lily is one of the oldest 
branches of floriculture, dating back to 3000 B. C. when the 
flowers were used by the ancient Egyptians in religious cere- 
monies as well as for utilitarian purposes. In 1884 the 
German botanist, Schweinfurth, found petals of the white 
Nymphaea Lotus, of nocturnal habit, and N. caerulea, of 
diurnal habit, in the funeral wreaths of Rameses II, and 
water-lilies were commonly used for funeral decorations in 
the nineteenth and twenty-first dynasties, the custom being 
to place wreaths and semi-cireles of the flowers on the breast 
of the wrapped corpse. Schweinfurth compared his eollec- 
tions from the ancient tombs with the present-day Egyptian 
lotus and was unable to detect any difference. Hence the 
conclusion arrived at is that the species is not undergoing 
transmutation, or if it is that the changes are infinitely slow, 
one of the contributing factors probably being that the climate 
of Egypt is very nearly the same as it was 4000 years ago. 
The development and improvement of the water-lly from 
the original plant is of comparatively recent date, the first 
hybrid, N. devoniensis, having been grown in 1851 by Paxton, 
the eminent gardener to the Duke of Devonshire. He also 
built special aquatic houses for the cultivation of tropical 
water-lilies, thus arousing popular interest in the subject in 
Europe. In view of the tropical climatic conditions in St. 
Louis during the summer, special aquatic greenhouses are 
unnecessary, Since it is possible to grow outdoors plants far 
superior to those produced in European greenhouses. Within 
the past eight years, at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the 
area devoted to water plants has been increased from two 
small ponds capable of growing approximately two dozen 
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