NYMPH^A ODORATA. SWEET-SCENTED WATER-LILY. I 35 



well as by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, two of the earliest 

 Greek writers extant. This ancient water-lily of the Greeks, 

 which they named Nymphaia letica, still grows where they saw 

 it, in the lakes and ponds of Thessaly, and is the Nymphcea alba 

 of modern botany. Our species, Nyinpha:a odorata, differs 

 from this one of the ancients and of the old world chiefly in 

 the size and fragrance of the flowers. The earlier botanists 

 supposed it to be the same species, and Gronovius speaks of it 

 as the Nymphcea alba, with " full and sweet flowers;" and Wilde- 

 now, though recognizing Aiton's name of A^. odorata, remarks 

 that " it is different only in size," which is not strictly correct, as 

 there are usually a greater number of stigmatic rays, more 

 strongly nerved leaves, and some other slight differences. 

 Torrey and Gray regard N. reniformis of Walter, and N. minor 

 of Decandolle, as good varieties ; and Rafinesque gives others, 

 as parvifloi'a, rtcbclla, and chloriza (yellow root). Besides the 

 variations in the leaves and roots, there are shades of colors in 

 the flowers. It is not in every case that 



" The water-lily to the night, 

 Her chalice rears of silver light," 



as Sir Walter Scott would say ; for varieties of a deep-rose as 

 well as silver are often met with, an illustration of which we have 

 given in the upper flower of our plate. The leaves and sepals 

 are often tinged with red, even in the pure white petaled flowers, 

 so that the transition of the whole flower to a deeper color is one 

 that might be expected. Rafinesque writes of the rosy-flowered 

 kind as if it were common in " New York and Ohio," and says 

 it is not as odorous as the white kind. Of special locations for 

 the rose-colored forms Cape Cod and Falmouth, Mass., are 

 among the best known. 



The fact that our " white sweet pond-lily " often comes with 

 rose-colored flowers, so long recognized here, does not seem to 

 be known to the cultivators of flowers in Europe, as the recent 

 discovery of a rosy variety of the European white species in a 



