SARRACENIACEA. 445 
as we have already stated, is included in Nymphxacex by Bentham 
and Hooker. 
Diagnosis.—Aquatic herbs with peltate leaves. Thalamus 
very large, flattened at the top, and excavated so as to present 
a number of cavities. Carpels distinct, and partially imbedded 
in the large honeycombed thalamus. Fruit of numerous, usually 
1-seeded, nut-like bodies. Albumen none; plumule very large. 
Distribution and Numbers.—These beautiful water plants 
are natives of stagnant or quiet waters of temperate and tropical 
regions in the northern hemisphere ; they are most abundant in 
the East Indies. Illustrative Genus :—There is but 1 genus, 
Nelumbium ; which includes 3 species. 
Properties gnd Uses.—The nut-like fruits of all the species 
are edible, as well as their rhizomes, which contain starch like 
those of Nymphezaceous plants. 
Nelumbium speciosum.—The fruit of this plant is commonly considered to 
have been the Egyptian Bean of Pythagoras; and the flower the sacred 
Lotus so often represented on the monuments of E gypt and India. The 
plant, however, is no longer found in Egypt, but it is common in India. 
The leaves and peduncles contain a large number of spiral vessels ; 
these, when extracted, are used for wicks, ‘which on great and solemn 
occasions are burnt in the lamps of the Hindoos placed before the shrines of 
their gods.’ 
Cohort 2. Parietales.—Gyncecium syncarpous ; placentation 
parietal, or very rarely axile. 
Order 1. SARRACENTACEX, the Side-saddle-flower Order. — 
Character.—FPerennial herbs, growing in boggy places, with 
radical hollow leaves, which are pitcher- or trumpet-shaped ( figs. 
391 and 392). Sepals 4—6, usually 5, persistent, imbricate. 
Petals 5, hypogynous, sometimes absent. Stamens numerous, 
hypogynous ; anthers adnate, 2-celled. Carpels 3—5, united so 
as to form a compound 3—5-celled ovary ; ovwles numerous ; 
placentas axile ; style simple and truncate, or expanded at its 
top into a large shield-like angular process with one stigma 
beneath each of its angles. Capsule 3—5-celled, dehiscing 
loculicidally. Seeds numerous, attached to large axile pla- 
centas ; albwmen abundant. 
Diagnosis.—Perennial boggy plants, with pitcher or trumpet- 
shaped leaves. Calyx permanent, imbricate. Carpels united 
so as to form a compound ovary, and a 3—5-celled dehiscing 
fruit, with large axile placentas ; albumen abundant. 
Distribution and Numbers.—There are 8 species, of which 6 
are confined to the bogs of North America, 1 occurs in Guiana, 
the other species is found in California. Tllustrative Genera: 
—Sarracenia, Heliamphora. 
Properties and Uses.—The pitchers are lined by glandular 
hairy appendages ; these secrete a peculiar digestive fluid which 
dissolves any insects that find their way into them. The solu- 
