NYMPHiEACE^. 31 



partially naturalized about some gardens and fields. This species 

 is so named from the Greek, to flow or fall, on account of its 

 fugacious flowers. 



Note. The following three orders were arranged with the 

 preceding by Jussieu, and, though associated with it in location, 

 it does not appear evident in what place they should be fixed. 

 They have even been arranged in the class of Endogenae. The 

 subject has been long debated, and not satisfactorily settled ; the 

 whole shows the imperfection of the Natural Method, and what 

 advances are still to be made in it. 



ORDER 5. NYMPHiEACEiE. 



Calyx many-leafed, and corolla many-petaled, passing gradually 

 into each dther ; stamens many, standing on a large fleshy disk, 

 and around the many-seeded ovarium or germ ; herbaceous, with 

 thick, cordate leaves, or peltate, on a long foot-stalk growing from 

 a prostrate trunk, in still waters. 



The few plants of this order are spread over the northern hem- 

 isphere. The stems have a bitter, astringent principle, and the 

 plants are ranked among the sedatives, slightly narcotic. The 

 order is named from the first genus, a name from the Greek for 

 nymph. 



Nymph^a. L. 12. 1. 



JV*. odorata. Ait. White or Sweet Water Lily. A well- 

 known aquatic ; leaves round, heart-shaped, floating on the 

 water by their long petioles ; flowers on long, flexile foot-stalks, 

 with numerous white petals of a very sweet odor ; grows in 

 ponds, and flowers in July ; medicinal. See Bigelow's " Med- 

 ical Botany." 



A beautiful variety of this, with petals of a rosy tint, is culti- 

 vated at the Botanic Garden in Cambridge. 



Nuphar. Sm. 12. 1. Yellow Water Lily. 

 JV. advena. Ait. Another aquatic, sending its bright-yellow 

 flowers and thick leaves to the surface ; petioles semicyHndrical ; 



