404 



GENERAL REVIEW. 



perennial like the other species. It does not appear to be 

 generally known that manure has a wonderful effect on the 

 common white Nymph&a alba, causing it to grow with tropi- 

 cal vigour, and produce 

 leaves and flowers fully 

 twice the ordinary size, 

 and so distinct in appear- 

 ance that one would 

 readily imagine plants so 

 stimulated to be a dis- 

 tinct variety. A hardy 

 crimson - flowered variety 

 is said to grow in Sweden, 

 and with this we might 

 produce some charming 

 effects by grouping it with 

 the ordinary snowy-flow- 

 ered species. JV. pygmcea 

 is a Liliputian plant, with 

 flowers little larger than 

 half-a-crown and leaves 

 in proportion, and this is 

 well adapted for aquarium 

 culture ; and if fertilised 

 with pollen from N. rosea, 

 JV. carulea, or other species, a race of elegant miniature Nym- 

 phaeas might be the welcome result (see ' Bot. Mag.,' t. 1525). 

 It is said to be really a native of E. Siberia, but has long been a 



favourite with Chinese gar- 

 deners. In 1851, M. Ortgies 

 obtained fertile seeds from 

 N. r ubra (flowers of which 

 he had carefully emasculated) 

 fertilised by pollen from N. 

 Ortgiesiana, and the seeds 

 produced plants which flow- 

 ered the year following, and 

 are described in ' Flore des 

 Serres,' t. viii. p. 69, as being 



intermediate between the par- 

 ents in colour (rose), but tend- 

 ing towards the female in 

 habit, time, and duration of flowering. The hybrids also 

 possessed increased vigour, and produced flowers more pro- 



Entire flower of Nympfuea alba, L. (JVhite 

 Water-Lily}. 



H 



alba, L., series of forms 

 through which the petals (E F G), each of 

 which bears an anther, pass to the state of 

 the normal stamen (H). 



