4U 



NELUMBIACEiE. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CL. NELUMBIACEiE.— Water Beans. 



NjTnphffiacea, § Nelumbonese, DC. Syst. 2. 43. (1821) ; Prodr. 1. 113. (1824)- Nelumboneas, Martius 

 Conspectus, No. 187. (1835); Endl. Gen. cLxxxix.— NelumbiaceEE, Ed. Pr. Wight Illustr. 1. 1. 9. 



Diagnosis. — Nymphal Exoge^is, with distinct catpels immersed in a large honeycombed 

 torus, and without albumen. 

 Herbs, with peltate, fleshy, floating leaves arising from a prostrate trunk, growing in 

 quiet waters. [The I'hizome growing at the point, with bundles of vessels forming a net- 

 like cylinder, from whose outer and inner 

 part bimdles pass to the leaves and lateral 

 flowers. — linger.'] Sepals 4 or 5. Petals 

 numerous, oblong, in many rows, arising 

 from without the base of the torus. Stamens 

 numerous, ainsing from within the petals, in 

 several rows ; filaments petaloid ; anthers 

 adnate, bm'sting mwards by a double longi- 

 tudinal cleft. Toinis fleshy, elevated, exces- 

 sively enlarged, inclosing in hollows of its 

 substance the carpels, which are numerous, 

 one-seeded, with a very short style and 

 sunple stigma. Ovule single, suspended 

 from the point of a cord rismg from the base 

 of the cavity, anatropal. Nuts numerous, 

 half buried in the hollows of the torus, in 

 which they are, finally, loose. Seeds soli- 

 tary, rarely 2 ; albumen none ; embryo 

 large, with two 



fleshy cotyledons 

 and a highly de- 

 veloped plumule, 

 inclosed in its pro- 

 per membrane. 



This beautiful 

 race of water plants 

 offers one of the 

 most striking ex- 

 ceptions to the usual 



importance of albumen as a general mark of affinity ; for, although undoubtedly a mem- 

 ber of the Nj-mphal Alliance, it has not a ti*ace of albumen. Its cotyledons, however, are 

 crammed with starch, and it has a phunule so completely organised, that it is ready to 

 perform all the functions of growth the instant that germination is excited, and thus 

 that necessity for a separate magazine of food, which is so great with the feeble Nym- 

 phseaceous embryo, does not here exist. The natm'e of what is here called the proper 

 membrane of the plumule is not explained by Botanists. Richard regarded it as a cotyle- 

 don, the apparent cotyledons being in his view a two-lobed radicle. Ad. Brongniart 

 refers it to the sac of the amnios, which seems inadmissible. De CandoUe regarded it as 

 a stipule ; but it is found in connection only with the first leaf of the plumule, while, if 

 De Candolle is right, it ought to be present at the base of the second leaf also. The 

 singular enlargement of the torus, which constitutes so striking a featm'e in these 

 plants, is probably a less important circumstance than theu' large exalbuminous 

 embryo. 



Natives of stagnant or quiet waters in the temperate and tropical regions of the 

 northern hemisphere, both in the Old and the New World ; most abundant in the East 

 Indies. They were formerly common in Egypt, but are now extinct in that country, 

 according to DelUe. 



Chiefly remarkable for the beauty of the flowers. The fruit of Nelumbium speciosum 

 is beheved to have been the Egj^ptian Bean of Pythagoras, and the flower that Mythic 

 Lotus, which so often occm's on the monuments of Egypt and India. The nuts of all 

 the species are eatable and wholesome. The root, or more properly the creeping stem, 



Fig. CCXC— Nelumbium speciosum. 1. a section of its j'oung carpel ; 2, a section of the same when 

 ripened into a bean, and showing the structure of the seed, 



