34 FLORA OF MADRAS. [Nympliaea. 



2. NYMPHAEA PUBESCENS, Willd. ; W. & A. 17. N. Lotus, Hook, 

 f. & Thorns. ; F. B. I. i. 114 (not o/Linn.). 



Ditches and tanks in most Districts both along the Coasts 

 and on the Mysore plateau up to 3,000 ft. 



2. Nelumbium, Juss. 



A large erect herb, growing in shallow water from a stout 

 creeping rootstock. Leaves when mature raised high above the 

 water, peltate. Flowers rose white or yellow. Sepals 4-5. 

 Petals and stamens numerous, all hypogynous and caducous ; 

 connective prolonged above the anther. Ovaries many, 1-celled, 

 sunk in pits on the flat top of the broadly turbinate torus ; style 

 very short, exserted ; stigma terminal, peltate ; ovules 1-2, pen- 

 dulous. Carpels ovoid, loose in the cavities ; pericarp bony, 

 smooth. Seed filling the carpel ; testa spongy ; albumen ; 

 cotyledons fleshy, thick, enclosing the folded plumule. 

 NELUMBIUM SPECIOSUM, Willd. ; F. B. I. i. 116 ; W. & A. 16. 



Peduncles and petioles 3-6 ft. high ; leaves 2-3 ft. across, 



glaucous, concave ; fruiting torus 3-4 in. across ; ripe carpels 



rather larger than peas. 



In tanks and ponds in most Districts, especially in the hotter 



localities. 



The sacred Lotus. Vern. Hind. Kanwal ; Tarn. Tamaray. 



Family YIII. PAPAYERACEAE. 



Herbs with milky or coloured juice, rarely watery. Leaves 

 radical or alternate. Flowers terminal, solitary cymose or pani- 

 culate. Sepals 2-3, hypogynous, free or cohering in a cap, 

 caducous. Petals 4, in 2 whorls, large, crumpled, rarely more or 

 0. Stamens very numerous, in many series, very rarely few ; 

 filaments thread-like ; anthers basifixed, bursting by lateral slits. 

 Ovary 1 -celled, with 2 to many parietal placentas or these being 

 sometimes prolonged, divided into many nearly complete cells ; 

 style short or ; stigmas radiating, as many as the placentas, free 

 or adnate to and crowning the flat top of the ovary; ovules 

 anatropous, parietal. Fruit a 1-celled or by the intrusion of the 

 parietal placentas a many-celled capsule, opening longitudinally 

 by 2 or 4 valves or by pores at the top of and between the 

 placentas. Seeds usually numerous, with oily or fleshy albumen ; 

 embryo basal, minute. 



