WATER-LILY TKIBE 29 



plant Le Chapeau iVEveque ; and in other countries besides it has received 

 a name from the fancied resemblance which its petals bear to a clerical hat, — 

 for the Germans call it BischofsmiUze. It is the Midljeshlorm of the Dutch, and 

 the Epimedio of the Italians and Spaniards ; while this, or a similar species, is 

 known to the Japanese by the name of Ikaniso. It has been found in Bingley 

 Woods in Yorkshire, about Glasgow and Edinburgh, and on Carrock Fell and 

 Skiddaw, Cumberland. 



Order III. NYMPH^EACEiE— WATER-LILY TRIBE. 



Sepals 4 — 6, gradually passing into petals, and then into stamens, all 

 being inserted on a fleshy disk, which surrounds the ovary ; stigma sessile, 

 rayed ; berry many-celled, many-seeded. Aquatic herbaceous plants, remark- 

 able for their large and beautiful flowers, which are in tropical lands very 

 fragrant, and of brilliant tints. They have large, floating, peltate, or heart- 

 shaped leaves. Several have nutritious roots, which are eaten either roasted 

 or boiled ; and their seeds contain a large quantity of starch. That celebrated 

 plant, which has occupied so much attention, and been so successfully culti- 

 vated at Chacsworth and Kew — the Tlcforia regia — is not only the largest of 

 Water-lilies, but the largest aquatic plant known, and a vegetable wonder. 

 M. Schomburgk, who first discovered it on the Berbice, thus characteristically 

 describes it : " A gigantic leaf, from five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, 

 with a broad rim of a light green above, and a vivid crimson below, rested 

 upon the water ; quite in character with the wonderful leaf is the luxuriant 

 flower, consisting of many hundred petals, passing in alternate tints from 

 pure white to rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with them ; 

 I rowed from one to another, and observed always something to admire. 

 The leaf on its surface is of a bright green ; in form, orbicular, with this 

 exception — opposite its axis it is slightly bent in. Around the margin 

 extended a rim, about three to five inches high, on the inside light green, on 

 the outer part bright crimson." The upper portion of the stem is an inch 

 thick, and is studded with sharp prickles about three-quarters of an inch 

 in length, and the blossoms fifteen inches in diameter. But it is not the 

 tropical waters only which have the beautiful lilies-— the Lotus flowers — for 

 some of the species are found in temperate and even cold climates, some of 

 the Nymphcece lying in abundance and beauty on the surface of the crystal 

 lakes in Norway. The roots of Kymphcea lotus are very much prized as 

 food ; and the Victoria regia has been called the Water Maize, from its 

 nutritious and prolific seeds. The East Indian Nelumhium, which abounds 

 in all the hotter countries of the East, and with which the ditches about 

 Pekin are literally choked, is thought to have been the Sacred Bean of 

 Pythagoras, which was the object of religious veneration in Egypt, and 

 which the priests were commanded not to look upon. Its singular seed-vessels, 

 in whose cells lie the bean-like seeds, are thought to have originated the 

 Cornucopia of the ancients. 



L Water-lily {Nymp)haia). — Sepals 4 ; petals inserted on a fleshy disk. 

 Name from its growing in places supposed to be the haunts of the Nymphs 

 or Naiads. 



