194 The Waterlilies. 



Nymphaea lotus (Linnaeus) Willdenow. (Plate XVI.) 



Flowers usually large, white or tinged pink on backs of outer petals; stamens 

 yellow. Fruits numerous, depressed-spherical, truncate above, yellowish-green. Seeds 

 brown, shining, with very fine meridional ridges. 



Nymphaea lotus, Linnaeus 1753 (excluding Indian and American plants), fid. original specimen in 



hb. Linnaeus, now at Linn. Soc. London. Hooker & Thomson 1855 (in part). Miquel 



1859 (in part). Caspary 1865 (in part). Boissier 1867 (in part). 

 N. lotus, Willdenow 1797. Savigny 1802. Waldstein & Kitaibel 1802. Andrews tab. 391. Sims 



18050. Aiton 1811. Delile 1813. Sprengel 1817. DeCandolle 182 1 b; 1824. Guillemin & 



Perrottet 1830. Planchon 1852 b. Lehmann 1853 a. Simkovics 1883. Caspary 1888. Tricker 



1897. Moenkemyer 1897. Conard 1901 a. 

 N. lotus a Aegyptia, Planchon 1853 b. 



N. aegyptiaca, Opiz Naturalientausch (fid. Steudel 1841 ; Casp. 1865.) 

 N. thermalis, DeCandolle 1821 b; 1824, fid. specimen coll. Kitaibel at Grosswardein, 1815, in hb. 



DeCandolle." Reichenbach 1845. Lehmann 1853 a. Planchon 1851 c; 1853 b. 

 N. dentata, Schumacher & Thonning 1829, fid. specimens "ded. Schum." from hb. Lehmann in hb. 



Berlin; no types of this exist at Copenhagen, fid. Prof. E. Warming. Walpers 1842. 



Hooker 1846. Planchon 18500. Rev. Horticole 1851 a. Loudon 1855. Tricker 1897. 

 N. Ortgiesiana, Planchon 1852 e, fid. specimen sent by J. E. Planchon Feb. 4, 1853, in hb. Kew. 

 Castalia mystica, Salisbury 18066. 

 C. lotus, Woodville & Wood 1806. Tratinnick 1822. 



Description. Flowers 15 to 25 cm. across, open on 4 successive nights from 

 7.30 p. m. to 11 a. m., the sepals and petals all standing out horizontally, and stamens 

 all erect; nearly odorless. Buds ovate, obtuse. Peduncle stout, pubescent, 0.6 to 2.0 

 cm. in diameter, with usually 6 main air-canals, surrounded by 12 smaller ones; no 

 spiral bending in fruit. Receptacle conical, about twice as wide as upper part of 

 peduncle. Sepals 4, broadly ovate (10.8 cm. long by 5.1 cm. wide), rounded at 

 apex, pure green on back, white at base, with 10 to 16 creamy white, prominent veins ; 

 covered margins and inside white. Petals 19 or 20, oval, broadly rounded at apex, 

 tapering slightly at base, longer than the sepals; texture rather thick and firm; 4 

 outermost petals green along middle of back, otherwise white, or tinged with pink or 

 purplish; inner petals shorter and narrower, never stamenodial. Stamens about half 

 as long as the petals, yellow ; outer ones with broad, persistent filament having a lunate, 

 semi-decurrent insertion on the torus ; inner filaments slightly wider than the anthers, 

 with or without a dark purplish-brown spot on upper part ; outer anthers shorter than 

 their filaments ; inner anthers as long as, or slightly longer than the filaments. Ovary 

 finely pubescent. Carpels about 30 ; styles yellow, tinged purplish-brown on the back, 

 becoming incurved over the stigma in fruit ; stigma funnel-shaped ; axile process short, 

 cylindric, rounded. Fruit large, 6 to 9 cm. in diameter, with copious seeds; stigma 

 funnel-shaped; calyx and enlarged outer filaments persistent. Seed 1.36 mm. by 1.07 

 mm. to 1.44 mm. by 1.09 mm., with interrupted longitudinal lines of hairs ; aril inclosing 

 the seed. 



Germination may occur immediately after ripening of the seed, or better after a 

 period of drought. First leaf filiform, 1.6 to 1.9 cm. long. Second leaf linear to 

 linear-ovate, rounded at apex, tapering at base, 1.9 to 2.2 cm. long by 0.48 cm. wide; 

 petiole slender, about 1.3 cm. long. Third leaf narrowly ovate with abruptly tapering 



