Order 9.— THE WATER LILIES. 



157 



NELUM'BIUM. Nelumbo. 



The character of the genus the same as that of the order. 

 N. luteum. Yellow Xelumbo. A magnificent flowering plant, frequent in the stag' 

 nant waters of the South and West, rare in N, Y. and Conn. The leaves are 

 l-2f. broad, round, entire, peltate in the centre, which is concave, and elevated 

 above the water more or less on the long petioles. Flowers several times 

 larger than the White Water Lily, but without fragrance. Petals concave, of 

 a brilliant white at edge, becoming yellow towards the base. Nuts (called 

 Water-beans) about as large as acorns, eatable. June^ July. 



Order IX.— NYMPH^ACK^. The Water Lilies. 



Herl}s aquatic, with roundish leaves from a prostrate rhizoma; 



flowers large and showy, the sepals, petals, and stamens gradually passing 



into each other, imbricated and arranged in many rows ; 

 sepals few, colored inside, persistent ; stigmas radiating and crowning the 

 ovary ^ which in fruit becomes a capsule compound and 5-celled ; 

 seeds minute, numerous, with the embryo at the end of the albumen. 



Analysis of the Genera. 



Petals large as the sepals, white, red, 

 or blue. • Ni-MPH^'A. 



Petals smaller than the sepals, stamen- 

 like, yellow. Frog Lily, Nuphar. 



Fig. 3S1. Nymphaea odorata: a, the leaf; a 

 tbe'flower; 7^ the bud; cf, e.f^g, stamens grad 

 Tially changing into petals; h, a seed cut open, 

 showing the embryo in a little sac. Fig. 8S3, 

 the many-rayed stigma ; 3S4, cross-section of th« 

 many-celled ovary. 



