Nelumbo 



Nymphaeaceae 



451 



50 



Map 928 



Nelumbo pentapetala (Walt.) Fern. 



50 



Map 929 



Brasenia Schreberi Gmel. 



55 



Map 930 



Nymphaea tuberosa Paine 



still to exist in the Calumet Region. Drainage and ruthless digging of it 

 have contributed to its disappearance. I recall that it was common in the 

 Stodgdill Pond in Owen County and in Blue River Lake in Whitley County, 

 but it has been gathered in these places until it is now nearly extinct. The 

 species, however, spreads rapidly if not disturbed. In 1872 Babcock re- 

 ported it as infrequent in Wolf and Calumet Lakes in Lake County. James, 

 in a "Contribution to the Flora of Cincinnati, Ohio" writes that it was 

 "abundant in a pond back of Jeffersonville" in Clark County in 1877. 

 Clapp, who died in 1865, reports that it was scarce about New Albany in 

 his time. Schneck, in 1876, reports it as "common in ponds" in the Lower 

 Wabash Valley where it has now entirely disappeared. In 1897 Blatchley 

 reported it as scarce in ponds in Vigo County. Ridgway mentions a trip 

 to Foote's Pond in Gibson County in 1872, when Dr. Schneck and he 

 measured leaves of it that were 3 feet in diameter. 



There are records of the seed remaining dormant for at least 200 years 

 and germinating (Plant Physiology 5: 225. 1930). The following quota- 

 tion from Hooker's Jour. Bot. 1 : 189. 1834 is instructive : "Dr. Short of 

 Kentucky writes me . . . 'On the Ohio River, a hundred miles north of 

 Lexington, my brother owns a considerable tract of land, a piece of which 

 adjoining the river was subject to inundation, and in a shallow basin of 

 50 acres or more, the water remained throughout the year. Twenty years 

 ago this basin was drained, sown in grass and is now a productive meadow, 

 — the upper stratum being a tough, whitish clay. In plowing this piece of 

 ground lately, immense quantities of the seeds of the Cyamus {Nelumbo) 

 were turned up from among the clay in which they were embedded to a 

 considerable depth; they are perfectly sound and hard, requiring much 

 effort to break them open, and exhibiting, within, the cotyledons and 

 embryo, full, plump, and apparently fresh ; — none of them, however, mani- 

 fest the slightest disposition to vegetate. The plant has certainly not 

 grown there for twenty years; and the oldest resident of the neighbour- 

 hood has no recollection of having ever seen it.' " 



In N. A. from Mass. to Minn., southw. to Fla. and Tex. 



