Phyllody in Nelumbo. 
(WITH PLATE XXVIII.) 
By Henry S. Conarp, Pu. D. 
A new dwarf lotus recently imported from Japan by 
Messrs. Dreer, of Philadelphia, shows remarkable rever- 
sions in the floral parts. The variety comes to us under the 
name of Nelumbium Cihawan (?), but is likely to be put 
upon the American market as Nelumbo pygmaea alba plena. 
It is easily cultivated. In a half barrel one may have five 
or six flowers at a time, and fifteen or twenty leaves. The 
latter are four to six or eight inches in diameter, of the 
usual peltate form, on petioles about eighteen inches high. 
Among the leaves or slightly above them are the creamy 
white “double” flowers, three to four inches across. 
As is usual in Nelumbo the perianth leaves grade insen- 
sibly from the small triangular fibrous outer members to the 
large soft petals farther in. In this double form there is also 
a gradual transition from petal to stamen, as is so well 
known in roses, etc. These parts are all normally inserted 
around the stem at the base of the inverted cone-shaped 
carpellary receptacle. 
The carpels have changed into large, hollow, leafy organs, 
open by a slit along one side and are deeply cucullate at the 
rounded upper end. Instead of being inserted in individual 
excavations of the receptacle, all of the three or four carpels 
are attached at the base of a single cavity. The cavity is 
about two-thirds as deep as the total height of the receptacle, 
and the rim is slightly scalloped, showing an indication of 
the separate cavities. The cup is very plainly an outgrowth 
from the upper part of the true receptacle. A number of 
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