BOTANY. ^ 199 



inclosed in a vitellus, large with two fleshy cotyledons. Aquatic herbs, 

 with showy flowers, peltate floating leaves, and prostrate rootstocks, found 

 in the temperate and tropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. Lindley 

 enumerates one genus, including three species. Example : Nelumbium. 

 North America possesses one species, Nelumbium luteum, found in ponds 

 and lakes of the southern and western States, more rarely in the middle and 

 eastern. The floating leaves are sometimes one to two feet in diameter. 

 The tubers, when boiled, furnish an agreeable food somewhat like the 

 potatoe, and are gathered by some Indian tribes. 



Ordee 214. Nymph^ace^, the Water Lily Family. Sepals usually four, 

 sometimes compounded with the petals. Petals numerous, often passing 

 gradually into stamens. Stamens indeflnite, inserted above the petals into 

 the torus ; filaments petaloid ; anthers adnate ; introrse, opening by two 

 longitudinal clefts. Torus large, fleshy, surrounding the ovary more or less. 

 Ovary multilocular, many-seeded, with radiating stigmas ; numerous 

 anatropal ovules. Fruit many-celled, indehiscent. Seeds very numerous, 

 attached to spongy dissepiments; albumen farinaceous; embryo small, 

 inclosed in a fleshy vitellus, and situated at the base of the perisperm. 

 Aquatic plants, with jjeltate or cordate fleshy leaves, and a rootstock or 

 stem which extends itself into the mud at the bottom of the water. Lindley 

 enumerates five genera, comprehending fifty species. Examples : '"Ny mphspa, 

 ■^Nuphar, Victoria, Euryale. Nymphaea odorata is the white Water Lily 

 found in various parts of the United States. Nuphar advena is the common 

 Splatter-Dock. There are two other species in North America, one more 

 northern, the other more southern. Schomburgh has recently discovered a 

 new genus Victoria in Guiana, the flowers of which are a foot in diameter, 

 the leaves from four to six and a half feet. 



Nymphtea lotus (Egypt) {^l. 58, 59, fig. 9). 



Oedek 215. Cabombace^, the Water Shield Family. Sepals three to 

 four. Petals three to four, alternate with the sepals. Stamens hypogynous, 

 arising from an inconspicuous torus, two or three times the number of the 

 petals ; anthers linear, introrse, continuous with the filament. Carpels two 

 or more ; stigma simple ; ovules orthotropal. Fruit indehiscent, tipped with 

 the indurated styles, containing one or two pendulous seeds. Embryo small, 

 inclosed in a vitellus (the sac of the amnios), and placed at the base of a 

 fleshy perisperm. American aquatic plants, with floating peltate leaves. 

 Lindley mentions two genera, including three species. Examples : Cabombii, 

 *Brasenia, Of the two known genera, Cabomba has two species in Guiana 

 and one in the southern United States. Brasenia with one species (P. 

 peltata) is found in North America, and possibly in New Holland. 



Order 216. Berberidack.e, the Barberry Family. Sepals three, four, to 

 six, deciduous, in a double row. Petals hypogynous, equal in number to the 

 sepals, and opposite to them, or twice as many, often having an appendage 

 at the base on the inside. Stamens equal in number to the petals, and 

 opposite to them ; anthers adnate, bilocular (dithecal), each of the loculi 

 opening by a valve from the bottom to the top. Carpel solitary, unilocular, 

 containing two to twelve anatropal ovules ; style sometimes lateral ; stigma 



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