Distribution. 2 1 5 



since, we most follow those botanists who make this name a synonym of 

 N. lotus L. 



The questions of the place and time of origin of the genus Nymphaea 

 itself are obscure, although several fossils of this and allied genera are 

 known. All of these have been found in Europe. They establish the 

 existence of distinctly Nymphaeaceous types as early as the lower creta- 

 ceous. Indeed, at that time the three tribes Nelumboneae, Cabombeae, 

 and Nymphaeinae were already well marked. Saporta (1894 b) records 

 Braseniopsis venulosa (a form very near to Brasenia peltata), two species 

 of Nelumbium and a Nymphaeineous plant from Valle-de-Sobreiros, 

 Portugal. The last-mentioned plant was represented by rhizomes found 

 in a schistose marl. The leaf cushions were distinct and slightly promi- 

 nent ; the petiolar scar showed the traces of many irregularly distributed 

 air-canals ; below this were one to four root-scars of irregular size and 

 arrangement. Alternating with the leaf bases are much smaller pedun- 

 cular scars, with air-canals as above ; these occupy the place of leaves in the 

 phyllotactic spires. We do not know whether this stem was erect or 

 horizontal, but the plant can most readily be considered as a generalized 

 form, from which the tetrasepalous Nymphaeinae, and perhaps Nuphar also, 

 have been derived. Another remarkable fossil from the same beds appears 

 to be a fruit with the stigma and general shape of N. alba but wholly 

 superior ! If this interpretation be correct, it is a most interesting find. 



In the tertiary, the Nymphaeineous stock reached a very high devel- 

 opment. The genus Anoectomeria Sap. (1865 a, b), of which we may 

 take A. brongniartii (Casp.) Sap. as the type, had flowers and fruits 

 resembling those of N. alba, but twice as large. It had an outer row of 

 three floral leaves, and within this a second alternating row of three ; the 

 rest of the floral leaves were spirally arranged. It was probably apo- 

 carpous ; at any rate, the fruit broke up readily into elliptic or lunate 

 pieces, though Saporta says these correspond with the bases of the petals. 

 The rhizome was cylindrical and horizontal, and marked with large rhom- 

 boidal leaf-cushions. These have the curved scar of a broad stipular plate 

 in front as in Castalia and Victoria. The petiole scar shows two large air- 

 canals and two smaller ones above these. The root scars are arranged 

 as in Eucastalia. The leaf was large (28 to 40 cm. long), entire, fissi- 

 cordate, not peltate. There were 15 to 18 primary veins, which branch 

 and dichotomize to form a very fine network ; they form no primary areas, 

 but run pretty distinctly to the margin of the leaf. Thus we see in the 

 rhizome, stipules, leaf-margin and shape of fruit a marked resemblance to 



