114 ON SEEDLINGS 



Podophyllum Etnodi, Wall. (fig. 144). 



Hypocotyl undeveloped. 



Cotyledons broadly oval or rotund-oval, entire or minutely emar- 

 ginate, with a small tooth in the notch, five- to seven-nerved and faintly 

 reticulate, glabrous, convex above, margin revolute, light green 

 above, pale beneath, shining on both surfaces ; lamina 17 mm. long, 

 14-5 mm. wide ; petioles connate into one terete stalk, thinly and 

 minutely pubescent, pale green, shining, split on one side at the 

 base to allow the plumule to escape, 4-9 cm. long. 



Stem herbaceous, forming an underground rhizome ; 1st and fol- 

 lowing internodes undeveloped. 



Leaves simple, peltate, radiately or palmately-nerved and partite, 

 radical, alternate, exstipulate, petiolate, glabrous or thinly ciliate, 

 with the lobes one-nerved and strongly reticulate ; petiole terete (at 

 least in the seedling stage), glabrous, pale green, erect. 



No. 1. Tripartite, with the segments radiating equally in form 

 of a triangle ; lobes oval, obtuse, mucronate, irregularly, acutely, 

 and mucronately serrate, the terminal one slightly the largest. 



NYMPH^EACE^E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 45. 



Fruit and Seed. Carpels three to many, free or more or 

 less immersed in the torus, indehiscent when mature and dis- 

 tinct or united to form a fleshy and spongy or pulpy fruit. 

 Ovules one to many, anatropous, pendulous. The embryo in 

 Nelumbo occupies the whole seed, while in the rest of the Order 

 it is very small and there is both endosperm and perisperm. 

 Such cases are very rare ; they occur also in the Piperaceaa 

 and in the Zingibereae, a tribe of the Order Scitaminese. In 

 the Nymphseaceae, however, the seed is almost entirely occupied 

 with perisperm, the endosperm being reduced to a thin layer 

 forming a more or less fleshy amniotic sac enclosing the em- 

 bryo at the apex of the perisperm. The seeds are usually 

 anatropous, but in a fruit of Nuphar some may frequently be 

 found that are orthotropous. The seeds are very numerous in 

 Nymphsea, Victoria, and others, and are scattered all over 

 the walls or septa of the ovary. They are few in Cabomba, 



