NYMPH^ACE^. 73 



and imbricated ; carpels either apocarpous or syncarpous ; ovules anatropous 

 and when more than one not borne on the ventral suture ; embryo small and 

 enclosed in a close sac at the base of the fleshy albumen, or the latter wanting in 

 the anomalous Nelumbium. Rootstocks apparently endogenous rather than 

 exogenous in structure. The Water-lilies are of three suborders, of which 

 the first is most simple. 



Suborder I. CABOMBE^E. Sepals and petals each 3 (occasionally 4) and per- 

 sistent : stamens 3 to 18, and carpels '2 to 18, all free and distinct; no evident 

 disk. Carpels in fruit indehiscent, somewhat nut-like, 2-ovuled and 2-seeded on 

 the sides or on the doraal suture, or when 3-seeded one usually on or near the 

 ventral suture. Flowers small. 



1. CABOMBA. Petals bi-auriculate at base above a very short claw. Stamens as many as 

 petals and sepals, and opposite them : anthers short, adnate, extrorse. Carpels 2 or 3. 

 Stigma small and terminal on a short style, depressed or globular. Submersed leaves 

 capillary-multifid and opposite or verticellate. 



2. BRASENIA. Petals narrow and plane. Stamens 3 or 4 times as many : anthers linear- 

 oblong, innate. Carpels 4 to 18, generally capitate-crowded. Stigma sessile and large, 

 oblong, unilateral. Leaves alternate and entire. 



Suborder II. XELUMBOXE^E. Sepals and petals indefinitely numerous and pass- 

 ing the one into the other, regularly imbricated, hypogynous, inner successively 

 larger and more colored, promptly deciduous. Stamens indefinitely numerous, 

 hypogynous : anthers linear, slightly extrorse, the connective prolonged into an 

 incurved appendage. Carpels several (15 to 30) immersed separately in an 

 obconical enlargement of the receptacle ; ovary globular, with Very short style and 

 depressed umbilicate terminal stigma ; ovule solitary (rarely a pair) suspended. 

 Fruit an acorn-like nut. Seed exalbuminous, filled by the highly developed 

 embryo ; cotyledons thick and farinaceous-fleshy, united by the obsolete caulicle, 

 enclosing a plumule of two or three developing leaves, from the first node of 

 which in germination proceed the earliest roots. 



3. NELUMBO. The only genus. 



Suborder III. NYMPH^EACE^E proper. Sepals 4 to 6. Petals numerous, some- 

 times reduced to or resembling staminodes or innermost passing gradually into 

 * stamens, mostly marcescent or decaying away. Stamens very numerous : anthers 

 adnate, introrse. Carpels several, more or less united into several-celled compound 

 ovary, which bears indefinitely numerous ovules upon the ovarian walls. Stigmas 

 sessile and radiate. Fruit coriaceou.s-baccate, many-seeded. Seed and embryo as 

 in character of the order. Acaulescent from stout rootstocks, commonly slightly 

 lactescent. Stipules intrafoliaceous and united, sometimes adnate to base of 

 petiole. 



4. NYMPH.^A. Sepals and petals 4-merous in numerous ranks, and stamens indefinitely 

 numerous passing into each other successively. Sepals 4, plane, hypogynous, herbaceous 

 on the outer and somewhat petaloid on the inner face. Petals plane, those of the outermost 

 row often greenish oiitside, all oblong or lanceolate, imbricated over and their bases adnate 

 to the surface of the 7-3.5-celled ovary ; innermost staminodes or imperfect .stamens with 

 petaloid filaments. True stamens with narrow filaments and linear-oblong anthers, inserted 

 around the broad summit of the ovary. This concave and umbonate, lineate with as many 

 radiate stigraatic lines as there are carpels, the tips of the latter produced into as many 

 incurved short processes. Surface of the spongy-baccate fruit bearing the bases of decaying 

 sepals or their sears. Seeds enclosed in cellular membranaceous arillus. 



5. NUPHAR. Sepals .5 to 12, concave, roundish, mostly yellow and petaloid except greenish 

 base or outside, coriaceous, persistent. Petals 10 to 20, hypogynous, small and thick, the 



