- 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. i f 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 10, 
1,2. Leaf and flower of Nympheea rubra---natural Osservarions.---This plate, though correct so far as 
tze. it goes, does not carry the analysis of the order quite 
3. Side view of the stamens. far enough, a dissection of the seed is required to com- 
4. Front view, the stamens laid back to show the plete it. This defect arose from its being overlooked at 
stigmas. 5. Stamen detached. 6. Ovary cut verti- the time of making the drawing, several years ago, and 
cally, showing the numerous cells, and the ovules, my inability to get sufficiently ripe fruit, when pre- 
atiached to the broad placentary surface, covering the paring the figure for the press. 
whole surface of the partitions, 
VIII.—NELUMBIACE 4. 
This order is so closely allied in most respects to the former, that a very brief notice, after 
the very detailed one given of Nymphceacee will suffice to explain its peculiarities which solely 
appertain to the fruit. In place of the many-celled and many-seeded cells placed in a circle 
round the central axis of Wymphaacee, these, have an excessively enlarged fleshy disk, enclos- 
ing in hollows of its substance, the ovaries, which are numerous, separate, monspermous, with a 
In their Arrinitirs, Geocrapuicat Distrisution, AnD Properties, these two orders 
are so intimately united, that to go over these with reference to Nelumbiaceae, would be merely 
to repeat much that has been already said respecting Nymphceacee, suffice it therefore to say, 
that they are distributed widely over the northern hemisphere, Velumbium speciosum occupying 
the still waters of the old, while JV. luteum occupies those of the new world. In this country 
and China, both the creeping root-like stems and nuts, are u ‘ ° 
The leaf and flower stalks of this plant abound in spiral tubes more loosely combined, and 
perhaps stronger, than the same vessels in most other vascular plants. These in the southern 
provinces are extracted with great care by gently breaking the stems, and slowly drawing apart 
the ends. Long pieces of the spiral filament, composing the tube, are thus uncoiled.. With these 
filaments ‘“ are prepared those wicks which on great and solemn religious occasions are burnt 
in the lamps of the Hindoos placed before the shrines of their gods.”—Ainslie. Similar wicks 
“are prepared from the spiral tubes of some of the-Nymphceas but are not thought so sacred. 
. Insowing the seed of this plant it is customary to enclose them ina ball of clay before 
throwing them into the water. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 9. 
1,2. Nelumbiam speciosum, (white variety) flower, 6. Ovary. removed. 7. The same cut vertically, 
and part, (little more than one-fourth) of a leaf— showing the pendulous ovule-—both ma nified. : 
; 8. A mature fruit, the carpels half enclosed, and be- 
ens, and greatly enlarged, fleshy disk, with coming loose---natural size. 
the ovaries in situ—natural size, 9. A nut. 10,11. The same cut transversely and 
4. Stamens magnified, back and front view. vertically, 
5. Disk cut vertically, showing the hollows in its 2. Embryo enclosed in its proper sac. 
substance, and enclosed ovaries--somewhat magnified. 13. The same removed from the sac, and somewhat 
. unfolded---al/ more or less magnified. 
we 
IX.—PAPAVERACE. 
A small, but very important order of herbaceous, or suffraticose, milky plants ; with alter- 
nate leaves, and long one-flowered peduncles, but so strictly extra-tropical, that, but for the per- 
fect naturalization among us of Argemone Mexicana,an American member of the order, I should 
not have been able to have given a representation of the family, taken from a growing specimen. 
