87 



NYCTINOMUS. 



NYMPH.EACE.E. 



S3 



[CHEIROPTERA.] 



its food, which consists of fish, for choice, and in their absence of 

 frogs, mice, and even insects. The old French quatrain says : 

 " Le Bihoureau, espece de Heron, 



Ks baults rochers et es collines hante. 

 Sa forme est peu au Heron differente. 

 Bus le rivage il vit, et environ." 



The general truth of this picture of its habits is borne out by 

 modern observation ; and its fondness for perching on high situations 

 is attested by Mr. Gould, who received a fine adult specimen which 

 had been shot from a high tree in the gardens at Frogmore, near 

 Windsor. The nest is built of sticks on the topmost branches of trees, 

 and the bird breeds, like the Common Heron, in society. Where there 

 are no woods the nest has been found among reeds. The eggs, four in 

 number, are pale greenish-blue. 



The distribution of this bird is very wide. In these inlands it is a 

 rare visitor. In the last editions of Pennant, the specimen in the 

 Leverian Museum, which was shot near London, is noticed, and the 

 editor had heard of another having been killed in Suffolk ; and Dr. 

 Latham, in a note to the same work, records one that was killed at 

 Cliefden in Buckinghamshire. He adds that it is common in Spain 

 and about Gibraltar, and that it inhabits China and India ; and falls 

 into the general error, as it now seems to be considered, that the North 

 American species is identical with it. 



Montagu notices a specimen shot on the Ouse near Ampthill, and 

 another (a young bird, Gardenian Heron) waa shot near Thame, in 

 Oxfordshire, by Lord Kirkwall. Bewick took his figure from a speci- 

 men in the Wycliffe Museum. Two came under the observation of 

 .Mr. Selby : one shot by the Earl of Home, at the Hirsel, near Cold- 

 stream, in 1823; and another, now in SirW. Jardine's museum, killed 

 about two years afterwards in the neighbourhood of Dumfries. It 

 appears iu Mr. Thompson's Irish List. He saw a specimen in Dublin 

 which, he was informed, was sent to the bird-preserver, in whose 

 possession it was in a fresh state, from Letterkenuy, early in 1831. 



NYCTINOMUS. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



NYCTlnltXIS. 



N V( 'TOPHILUS. 



NYL-GHAU. [A 



NYMPHA'CEA. [CONCHACEA; CONCHIPERA ; MALACOLOGY.] 



NYMPH.EA, a genus of Plants the type of the natural order 

 li(tacea. It has a calyx of 4 sepals girding the base of the torus. 

 The petals, 16 to 28, adnate to the torus, elevated about the ovary 

 and covering the same, and therefore at first sight appearing inserted 

 into it. The stamens are numerous, disposed in many aeries, and 

 inserted in a similar way above the petals. There are upwards of 20 

 species of this genus described. They have all large floating leaves, with 

 white, red, or blue (lowers, which appear at the surface of the water. 



ff. cecrulca. Blue Water-Lily, has peltate nearly entire leaves with- 

 out dots, glabrous on both surfaces, and 2-lobed at the base, the lobes 

 free ; the anther with an appendage at the apex ; the stigmas 16-rayed. 

 This plant is a native of Lower Egypt in rice-grounds and canals 

 about Itosetta, Damietta, and Cairo. The flowers are very fragrant, 

 and from its frequent representation in the sculptures of Egypt, it 

 appears to have been regarded as a sacred plant by the ancient 

 Egyptians. 



jV. edulit, the Eatable Water-Lily, has peltate broad oval entire 



leave*, with the under surface pubescent. This plaut is a native of 



i.it Indies, in wet fenny districts. Its flowers are small, and 



white or reddish. Like all the species, it has large pear-shaped roots, 



which contain an abundance of starch, and tliey are consequently used 



an articles of diet. The seeds aleo of a species nearly allied to this, 



V. mint, which has deep-red flowrs, are also used as an article of 



diet. IU flowers also are held in superstitious veneration by the 



Mm. loos in the districts of the East Indies in which it grows. 



\. i'U,bf*ceni has peltate, sharply-toothed leaves, orbicularly reni- 

 fni-iii, with the under surface pubescent and spotted, and the lobes 

 roundish. It is a native of the East Indies, Malabar, Moluccas, Tran- 

 (jiiebnr, Ceylon, Java, and has been also found at Waree and Acra on 

 the western coast of Africa. This plant is called Lotos throughout 

 India, and is held sacred by the Hindoos. Its flowers are of a beauti- 

 ful white. They expand during the day and close at night, and exhnlc 

 a strong vinous odour. 



A'. Lotuf, the Egyptian Lotos, has peltate leaves, sharply serrated ; 

 tin; under surface is pilose at the nerves, and pubescent between them. 

 This plant is a native of Egypt, and grows in slow-running streams, 

 especially in the Nile near Kosetta and Damietta, and is found iu rice- 

 li.-liU during the time they arc under water. It has largo white 

 flowern, with the sepals red at the margins. The roots are large, tuber- 

 ous, and eatable. The seeds dried were made into a bread by the 

 ancient Egyptians, and the roots were employed iu the same manner. 

 This plant is regarded with superstitious veneration by tho Egyptians. 

 inbles the Nelumbo of the Hindoos, a plant belonging to the 

 same natural order, and called the True or East Indian Lotos. The 

 latter has always been regarded as the emblem of fertility. Lotos is 

 a name applied to various plants by the ancients. The Lotos of the 

 /.'ii',/'ltayi was the Zizyjikut Loloi ; that of Homer and Dioscorides, a 

 species of Lotui, or Trifulium, The Lotus of Hippocrates is the Veltii 

 Awiralit ; and the Italian Lotos is the Dioipyrus Lotui. 



ia, the Common White Water-Lily, lias conlato quite entire 



leaves; the stigmas 16-rayed, the rays ascending. This plant is a 

 native of ditches, ponds, and lakes throughout Europe, and is abund- 

 ant in Great Britain. The flowers are white, and, according to 

 Linnaeus, open themselves in the morning at seven o'clock, and close 

 them at four o'clock in the evening. This plant is very deservedly* 

 highly esteemed as the most beautiful of European plants. It is 

 frequently accompanied with the yellow water-lily, and the two 

 together give au exceedingly graceful aypearance to the waters they 

 occupy. The roots of the White Water-Lily contain an astringent 

 principle, which renders them useful in dyeing. They also contain 

 starch, and on this account swine feed on them, although other animals 

 reject them. The whole plant was at one time regarded as medicinal, 

 but is now seldom employed by medical men, although it has a popu- 

 lar reputation as a remedy in many diseases. There is a variety of 

 this plant occasionally mut with, called N. alba minor, which has 

 smaller flowers and leaves than the species. 



N. odorata, Sweet-Scented Water-Lily, has cordate quite entire 

 leaves, with the nerves and veins on the under surface very prominent ; 

 the stigmas 16- to 20-raycd ; the rays erect, inflexed at the top. This 

 plant is a native of North America from Canada to the Carolinas ; it 

 is found in deep ditches and slow-running rivers. This plant is often 

 confounded with the European Lily, but it is quite distinct. Its 

 flowers are white tinged with red, very fragrant ; they open in the 

 morning, and close at noon. The root is astringent, and much more 

 powerful than the last species. It contains tannin and gallic acid, and 

 a decoction of the root gives a black precipitate with sulphate of iron. 

 The root is used by medical men in America as an astringent, and is 

 employed by the people for making poultices. 



NYMPH^EA'CEjE, a natural order of Aquatic Plants, with floating 

 leaves and solitary flowers, found in all the hot and temperate parts 

 of the world. They usually have 4 sepals and many petals, which 

 latter gradually contract into stamens, indefinite in number, and either 

 hypogynous or adherent to the sides of the carpels. The ovary is 

 superior, divided internally into numerous cells, to whose sides adhere 

 many seeds, containing an abundance of albumen and a small embryo 

 external to it : the stigmas radiate from the apex of the ovary. The 

 order differs from Sanunculacea: in the consolidation of its carpels, 

 from Papaveraccce in the plaoentation not being parietal, and from 

 .\<l<iintjiacea! in the want of a large truncated disc containing mono- 

 spermous achenia. The stems of these plants are fleshy rhizomata, 

 rooting in the mud at the bottom of the waters in which they grow ; 

 and their woody tissue is so loosely disposed among the cellular, as to 



White Water.Lily (Xynijilura tiltia}. . 



1, the ovary, on which are seen the scars left by the petals and stamen; re. 

 moved from it ; 2, a seed. 



