WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 97 



stems; calyx one-fourth of an inch long, ten-nerved, cylindrical, becoming 

 campanulate in fruit, its apex with five triangular, pointed teeth; petals 

 five, narrowly clawed, the spreading limbs each cleft into four linear lobes, 

 of which the middle pair is longest. 



Moist meadows, fields and waste places. New Brunswick to New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania. Frequent in cultivation. A native of Europe 

 but thoroughly naturalized in many places in the eastern states. Flowering 

 in July and August. 



Sacred Bean Family 



Nelumbonaceae 



American Nelumbo or Lotus 



Neliimho lit tea (Willdenow) Persoon 



Plate ss 



Rootstock stout, nearly horizontal, tuberiferous, in mud beneath 2 to 

 6 feet of water. Leaves i to 2 feet broad, orbicular, or somewhat con- 

 stricted in the middle, centrally peltate, floating or raised a foot or two 

 out of the water, prominently veined, smooth and dark green above, more 

 or less pubescent and finely scaly beneath; leaf petioles and flower stems 

 3 to 7 feet long, rigid and tough, with several large air canals. Flowers 

 pale yellow, fragrant, 4 to 10 inches broad; petals concave, obovate, blunt, 

 numerous, surrounded by four or five overlapping scales. Carpels 

 numerous, contained in pits in the large convex receptacle which becomes 

 3 to 4 inches long and obconic in fruit. Seeds about one-half of an inch 

 in diameter. 



In rivers and lakes, locally distributed from Massachusetts to Minne- 

 sota, Nebraska, Louisiana and Cuba. Flowering in August at Sodus bay, 

 where a large colony of it exists. Tubers and seeds farinaceous and edible. 

 The local distribution in the north may be due to introduction by the 

 Indians. The Indian Lotus or Sacred Bean (Nelumbo nelumbo 

 (Linnaeus) Karsten), with large pink flowers, is freqvient in cultivation. 



