122 NYxMPII.KA FLA-.A. AUDUBON S YELLOW WATER-LILY. 



northern seas to Hudson's Bay, remaining- till October, when 

 they go south to more congenial climes. Large numbers 

 reach the Chesapeake Bay, where they find a favorite food in the 

 Vallisncria spiralis, known to sportsmen as " wild celery ; " and 

 when the season arrives for leaving this location they then cross 

 the continent to the Columbia River and the shores of the 

 Pacific Ocean, on their way back to their Arctic home. Audubon 

 says they have never been seen beyond Cape Hatteras, in North 

 Carolina. As this water-lily has not been found in the waters 

 frequented by this swan, it is not surprising that botanists 

 reo;arded Audubon's lily as a mere creation of the artist's fancy. 

 Leitner, however, is said to have been a young German botanist 

 who collected in Florida, and was killed there by the Indians. 

 There, therefore, still remained the probability that Audubon 

 had taken a drawing of Leitner's to assist his swan without a 

 thought of the geographical incongruity, and the giving of Leit- 

 ner's name, Nymphcca flava, supports this supposition. Mrs. 

 Treat's discovery of this lily, in Florida, shows that Leitner may 

 have seen it there, though her plant differs from that pictured 

 in Audubon's work. In this drawing the leaves are ovate- 

 oblong, and the lobes are rounded at the base, of a clear uniform 

 green without spots, and the yellow of the flowers is very light. 

 Mrs. Treat's plant differs, as we see by our picture, and only the 

 belief that it must have been the plant intended by Leitner 

 entitles him to the retention of the name he gave it. 



In " Harper's Magazine," as already cited, Mrs. Treat pro- 

 poses for it the name of Nyniphcea lutea ; but this brings to 

 mind that Linnaeus classed what we now call Nitpliar, or as it is 

 commonly called along the Delaware, the " splatter-dock," witli 

 the true Nymphseas ; and that one, now AhipJiar lutca, was Ayni- 

 phcsa lutca then. It is true that in botany a name 'rejected may 

 be taken up again for another species, but in such a case as this 

 It would lead to confusion with a synonym, — an evil botanists 

 endeavor to avoid. It may be remarked here that there is no 

 o-reat difference between Ahiphar and Nymphcra, except in 



