2306 



NYCTERINIA 



NYMPILEA 



NYCTERiNIA : Zaluzianskya. 



NYCTOCEREUS (night and cereus). Cactacese. A 

 slender cactus, at first erect, then clambering, with few 

 branches; the st. has many low ribs with closely set 

 areoles producing 10 or more acicular spines: fls. 

 large, nocturnal, white; tube and ovary covered with 

 small bracts, producing in their axils small clusters of 

 spines: fr. red; seeds black. Several species are known. 

 They are among the several kinds of night-blooming 

 cereus. See Succulents. 



serpentinus, Brit. & Rose (Cereus serpentinus, DC.). 

 Sts. 5-8 ft. long, slender, flexuous; ribs 10-13, low, 

 obtuse; spines acicular: fls. 6 in. long. Mex. B.M. 

 3566. 



guatemalensis, Brit. & Rose. A recently described 

 species which has been widely intro. into Eu. and is 

 being grown to some extent in this country. It grows 

 easily in cult. It is not so tall as N. serpentinus, but 

 the tips of the sts. are inclined to bend over and take 

 root and start new plants. j. N. ROSE. 



NYMPHJfeA (from Nympha, in Greek and Roman 

 mythology, a nature-goddess). Syn., Castdlia. Nym- 

 phaeacese. WATER-LILY. POND-LILY. NYMPHEA. The 

 most showy of aquatics (except Victoria), inhabiting the 

 North and South Temperate and Tropical zones. 



Herbs, perennial by horizontal or erect rootstocks or 

 tubers, rooting in mud, covered by 3 in. to 6 ft. of water 

 (rarely in bogs not submerged) : Ivs. floating, or when 

 crowded rising a few inches above the water, round or 

 oval, entire or dentate or sinuate, fissi-cordate, often 

 sub-peltate, 2 in. to 2 ft. across: fls. mostly showy, 

 white, yellow, blue, and red, in all shades, 1-12 or 14 

 in. across; sepals 4; petals and carpels many; stamens 

 numerous; pistil with a broad cup-like depression in 

 the center of the fl., surrounded by a ring of fleshy pro- 

 cesses, the carpellary styles, and with a knob at the 

 center. About 40 well-marked species, with numerous 

 local varieties and many cult, hybrids. 



The petals and stamens of Nymphsea appear to be 

 attached to the sides of the ovary; but this surface is 

 to be considered as the outside of a cup-like receptacle, 

 its cavity being completely filled by the radially placed 

 carpels, with whose backs it is fused. Several species 

 show easy gradations from sepal to petal and from 



Setal to stamen, thus illustrating the homology of 

 oral parts. The peduncles and petioles are traversed 

 by a number of longitudinal air-canals, from whose 

 walls star-shaped cells and rounded cell groups project 

 inward; in the walls of these stellate internal hairs, are 

 imbedded numberless minute crystals of calcium oxa- 

 late; they are objects of great beauty in microscopical 



rrt 



89 



2541. Transverse section of 

 petiole of Castalia group. 



2542. Transverse section of 

 peduncle of Castalia group. 



sections. The distribution of these, as also of the air- 

 canals, differs in different species. (Figs. 2541 to 2544.) 

 Three types of leaf may be distinguished: (1) Very 

 thin and fragile submerged leaves on short petioles; (2) 

 floating leaves, thicker in texture, with stomata and 

 palisade cells on the upper surface only; (3) aerial 

 leaves, leathery in texture, sometimes, at least, bearing 

 stomata on the under surface. 



The leaves spring from the rhizomes in spiral orders 

 of varying complexity, from two-fifths up. The grow- 

 ing apex of the stem is protected by the colorless stipules 



2543. Transverse 



2544. Transverse 



and a dense growth of long fine hairs. A group of roots 

 comes off from the stem just below each leaf. The 

 flowers are extra-axillary, arising as members of the 

 leaf spirals or in a spiral of their own. The rhizomes of 

 species which dry off in the resting season (Lotos, 

 Hydrocallis; Apocarpiae) become protected by a strong 

 corky bark; others remain continually 

 in a state of more or less active 

 growth. 



Habits of opening. The flowers of 

 every species open and close at a 

 particular time each day, so that in 

 a pond with eighteen or twenty kinds 

 there is some change taking place 

 at almost all hours. The hours of 

 blooming are fairly regular, though section of petiole 

 the tropical species are more sluggish * Lotos group- 

 in cool weather, and the hardy ones 

 are irregular in very hot times. Each 

 flower opens from one or two to five 

 or seven successive days (or nights), 

 being about an hour later to open 

 and an hour earlier to close on its 

 first than on subsequent days. The 

 flower then goes down into the water 

 by a spiral coiling of the peduncle d 

 (or simply bending over if in shallow of Lotos gr up- 

 water), where the seed ripens. When 

 in six to ten weeks the pod matures and bursts, the seeds 

 rise to the water-surface and float for several hours by 

 means of a buoyant aril. This finally decays and drops 

 the seed at some distance from the parent. To secure 

 these, the floating seeds may be dipped up in a wire 

 sieve, or better, the pods may be inclosed in muslin 

 or cheesecloth bags before ripening, all of the seeds 

 being thus secured. 



The hybrids. The species of a single group hybridize 

 very readily among themselves, and in the Lotos and 

 Eucastalia groups the hybrids are more or less fertile. 

 By means of this condition all shades of color have 

 been obtained, from the pure white ./V. Lotus var. dentata 

 to the dark crimson-red N. rubra. In this group and in 

 Castalia varieties have so multiplied of late and fanci- 

 ful names have been so freely given that an accurate 

 classification of all of them is no longer possible. In 

 the Brachyceras group, hybrids occur almost certainly 

 if .V. zanzibariensis is grown in the same pond with others 

 of the group; thus have originated some very fine 

 varieties. Outside of single groups, no genuine hybrids 

 have yet been produced. Between the apocarpous and 

 syncarpous species, a hybrid would be impossible. 

 Authorities differ as to the best time to transfer pol- 

 len. Certain it is that the flowers are pistillate on the 

 first day of opening, the pollen being shed on succeed- 

 ing days or late on the first day. Some say that polli- 

 nation should take place in the early morning hours, 

 about daybreak; others consider the time most favor- 

 able just as the flower is closing for its first time. 



Trouble with the names. The water-lilies and yellow 

 pond-lilies or spatterdocks were together included by 

 Linnaeus under the genus name Nymphsa. In 1805 

 Salisbury first separated these two parts of the genus. 

 The water-lilies he called Castalia and the spatterdocks 

 Nymphsea. J. E. Smith, writing two years later, dis- 

 regarded Salisbury's work and called the two groups 

 Nymphaea and Nuphar respectively. Thus Castalia, 

 Salisb.= Nymphsea, Smith, and Nymphaea, Salisb.= 

 Nuphar, Smith. Salisbury, contrary to good usage and 

 the present International Rules (article 45), coined a 

 new name for the group containing the larger number 

 of species, and arbitrarily changed nearly all of the 

 specific names. His names, however, never came into 

 general use, but Smith's were generally adopted. 

 Strict adherents of the "law of priority" have recently 

 revived the generic names of Salisbury. The principle 

 of fifty years of accepted usage may well be extended 



