NYMPHyEA ODORATA. 

 SWEET-SCENTED WATER-LILY. 



NATURAL ORDER, NYMPHACE^. 



Nymph^A. ODORATA, Aiton. — Leaves orbicular, cordate-cleft at the base to the petiole, five to 

 nine inches wide, the margin entire; stipules broadly triangular or almost kidney- 

 shaped, notched at the apex, appressed to the root-stock; flowers white, very sweet- 

 scented, often as much as five and a half inches in diameter when fully expanded, 

 opening early in the morning, closing in the afternoon ; petals obtuse ; axil much longer 

 than the distinctly stipitate oblong seeds. (Gray's Manual of Botany of the Northern 

 United States. See also Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, and Wood's 

 Class-Book of Botany.') 



EW flowers have excited the enthusiasm of the poets as 

 much as the common lily; but among these few our 

 pure white water-lilies must be ranked, and indeed the senti- 

 ments born of the one are often identical with those incited by 

 the other. 



Bryant, in his beautiful poem of the " Child and the Lily," 

 exclaims : 



" Innocent child and snow-white flower ! 

 Well are ye paired in your opening hour ; 

 Thus should the pure and the lovely meet 

 Stainless with stainless, and sweet with sweet." 



And though it is probable that the poet had the white eastern 

 lily in view, the sentiment is just as applicable to our sweet 

 water-lily ; a flower which the emblematists have dedicated to 

 purity. Joaquin Miller expresses just the same idea, when 

 he says : 



" The lily on the water sleeping, 



Enwreathed with pearl, and 'bossed witli gold. 

 An emblem is, my love, of lliec." 



Km) 



