THE WATER-LILY FAMILY. 



403 



flora, the last being a deliciously-perfumed species, having long- 

 tubed flowers. -It is singular to observe that when M. longi- 

 flora was made the female parent, all attempts at hybridisation 

 proved abortive, while an inversion of this cross gave numerous 

 hybrids, and these, when crossed, gave a numerous progeny in 

 the second generation. M. Lecoq has also hybridised M. 

 jalapa with M. dichotoma, the result being plants bearing 

 yellow flowers, or flowers striped with yellow and white. 



THE WATER-LILY FAMILY (Nymphaac&z). 



A group of very beautiful aquatic or floating plants, inhabiting 

 the whole of the north- 

 ern hemisphere, occa- 

 sionally met with in 

 Southern Africa, while 

 in South America the 

 highest beauty in the 

 whole group is met 

 with in Victoria re- 

 gia. In Nymphaeas 

 we find a gradual 

 transition from sepals 

 and petals to anthers 

 and stamens, and this 

 group is one of the 

 very few in which 

 semi-double flowers are 

 the normal state. All 

 the plants in the order 

 are readily propagat- 

 ed from seeds, which 

 should be sown in a 

 pot of loamy soil and 

 sand, and plunged be- 

 neath the surface of a 

 warm tank, fully ex- 

 posed to the sun. The 

 rhizomes may be divid- 

 ed in the case of the 

 hardy kinds. Imported 

 seeds should be sown 

 as soon as received. The Victoria is .generally and most con- 

 veniently treated as an annual plant in our gardens, but it is a 



Nymphcea alba, JL. a, Flo^vering plant entire, 

 showing flowers, expanded leaves, and others in in- 

 volute vernation ', b, Fruit with scars an the ontside ; 

 T, Transverse section of the fruit ', d, Seed cut longi- 

 tudinally ; e, Seed showing embryo ; f, Seed natural 

 size and magnified. 



