Taxonomy Nymphaea tuberosa. 



189 



Nymphaea tuberosa Paine. (Figs. 70, 71, 72.) 



Rhizome horizontal, with many, often compound, slenderly attached tuber-like 

 branches. Phyllotaxy 2 on 5, with long internodes. Petioles green, with longitudinal 

 brown stripes above. Leaves orbicular, pure green beneath; sinus usually narrow, 

 angles slightly produced. Flowers scentless or nearly so, opening about 8 a. m. ; 

 sepals pure green; petals obovate to oblanceolate, pure dazzling white, often deflcxed. 

 Seed large. 



Nymphc -t tuberosa, Paine 1865, fid. specimen coll. Paine on S. shore of Lake Ontario, from hb. A. 



Gray, in hb. Kew. Hooker 1881. Garden 1882; 1807. Gray, Manual ed. 5. Caspary 1888. 



Sargent 1888. Tricker 1897. Conard 1901 a. 

 N. reniformis, Gray 1889. Not Walter 1788, etc. 

 N. maculata, Rafinesque 1830. 

 N. alba, Nuttall 1818. Not Linn., etc. 



N. blanda, Hort. (in some American gardens). Tricker 1897. Not Meyer 1818. 

 N. tuberosa maxima, Hort. Conard 1901 a. 

 N. tuberosa var. parva, Abbott 1888. 

 Leuconymphaea reniformis, MacMillan 1892. 

 Castalia reniformis, Branner & Coville 1888. 

 C. tuberosa, Greene 1888. Britton 1889 a. Lawson 1889. Hitchcock 1890. Britton & Brown 1897. 



Fia. 70. Nymphaea tuberosa: s, sepal; pi, p2, p3, successive petals; 8t 1-4, successive 

 stamens. Natural size. 



Description. Flower 10 to 23 cm. across, floating, or when crowded and in 

 shallow water raisecT 10 to 15 cm. above the surface. Open 3 or 4 days (2 or 3, 

 Sargent 1888) from 8 a. m. to 1 p. m. (2 or 3 p. m., Sargent, 1. c.) ; odorless (or with a 

 faint odor of apples, Gray 1889). Peduncle terete, stout, 0.5 to 0.9 cm. in diameter, 

 green, forming in fruit, in the lower portion, about 3 close spirals 6 cm. in diameter, the 

 upper portion only slightly bent ; 30 cm. to 2 meters long ; air-canals as in N. odorata. 

 Sepals 4, often becoming reflexed to the peduncle in flower, putrescent ; pure green 

 outside, rounded at apex. Petals all pure white, obovate or almost spatulate, concave, 

 rounded at apex, wedge-shaped at base, outer ones reflexed in flower, gradually smaller 

 inward but retaining the spatulate or obovate shape. Stamens as in N. odorata. 

 Carpels about 14; axile process globular. Fruit depressed globose, bare of all floral 

 parts, 3.2 cm. in diameter by 2.2 cm. high. Seeds few (157 in a fruit), large, dark 

 olive-brown, smooth, with very prominent raphe ; 0.44 cm. long by 0.28 cm. in diam- 

 eter. Aril about as long as the seed, or shorter, not stipitate. 



