414 



NELUMBIACE^E. 



[Hypogy.nois Exogens. 



Order CL. NELUMBIACEJE.— Wateb Beans. 



™ o ,«« nwi- Prodr. 1. 113. (1824)— Nelumboneae, Martins 



Vi^sosis.-Xymphal Exogens, with distinct carjxh hn.umd i» a large honeycombed 



torus, and without albumin. 

 u i, -.i O it„ to flp^v floatincr leaves arising from a prostrate trunk, growing in 

 ^"trf {£ rhSSgr^a. &. po ta , wi,h hmdta, of ve.sd, fon^g a ne. 

 like cylinder, from whose outer and inner 

 part bundles pass to the leaves and lateral 

 flowers.— UngerJ] Sepals 4 or 5. Petals 

 numerous, oblong, in many rows, arising 

 from without the base of the torus. Stamens 

 numerous, arising from within the petals, m 

 several rows ; filaments petaloid ; anthers 

 adnate, bursting inwards by a double longi- 

 tudinal cleft. Torus fleshy, elevated, exces- 

 sively enlarged, inclosing in hollows of its 

 substance the carpels, which are numerous, 

 one-seeded, with a very short style and 

 simple stigma. Ovule single, suspended 

 from the point of a cord rising from the base 

 of the cavitv, anatropal. Nuts numerous, 

 half buried in the hollows of the torus, in 

 which they are, finally, loose. Seeds soli- 

 tary, rarely 2 ; albumen none ; embryo 

 large, with two 

 fleshy cotyledons 

 and a highly de- 

 veloped plumule, 

 inclosed in its pro- 

 per membrane. 



This beautiful 

 race of water plants 

 offers one of the 

 most striking ex- 



SrSce^rSimen as a general mark of affinity ; for, although undoubtedly a mem- 

 ber of the Nymphs! Alliance, it has not a trace of albumen. Its cotyledons, however, aie 

 crammed with starch, and it has a plumule so completely organised, that it is ready to 

 perform all the functions of growth the instant that germination is excited, and thus 

 that necessity for a separate magazine of food, which is so great with the feeble Nym- 

 phteaoeooa embryo, does not here exist. The nature of what is here called the proper 

 membrane of the plumule is not explained by Botanists. Richard regarded it as a cotyle- 

 don, the apparent cotyledons being in his view a two-lobed radicle Ad.Bronjiuurt 

 refers it to the sac of the amnios, which seems inadmissible. De CandoUe regarded >t as 

 a stipule ; but it is found in connection only with the first leaf of the plumule while if 

 De CandoUe is right, it ought to be present at the base of the second leaf also J he 

 singular enlargement of the torus, which constitutes so striking a feature in hese 

 plants, is probably a less important circumstance than their large exalbummous 



NaALvea of stagnant or quiet waters in the temperate and tropical . regi one of the 

 northern hemisphere, both in the Old and the New World ; most abundant in the Ea t 

 Indies. They were formerly common in Egypt, but are now extmct m that countiv, 



nccordin^ to Ddiic * 



Chiefl v remarkable for the beauty of the flowers. The fruit of N elumbium specjosom 

 is believed to have been the Egyptian Bean of Pythagoras, and the flower tha M Mine 

 Lotus, which so often occurs on the monuments of Egypt and India The nuts o ail 

 the species are eatable and w holesome. The root, or more properl jMhe^reepiugJtem, 



Fig. CCXC.-Nelumbium speciosnm. 1. a section of its young carpel ; 2. a section of the same when 

 ripened into a bean, and showing the structure of the seed. 



Fig. CCXC. 



