NELUMBIACKfi. (NELUMBO FAMILY.) 21 



making a lid. Seeds many in several rows on the lateral placenta, with a fleshy 

 lacerate aril on one side. A perennial glabrous herb, with matted fibrous roots, 

 long-pctioled root-leaves, parted into 2 half-ovate leaflets, and simple naked 1- 

 flowered scapes. (Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.) 



1. J. dipliylla, Pers. Woods, W. New York to Wisconsin and south- 

 ward. April, May. Low. Flower white, 1' broad : the parts rarely in threes 

 or fives. Called Rheumatism-root in some places. 



5. PODOPHYL,L,UM, L. MAY-APPLE. MANDRAKE. 



Flower-bud with 3 green bractlets, which early fall away. Sepals 6, fuga- 

 cious. Petals 6 or 9, obovate. Stamens as many as the petals in the Hima- 

 layan species, twice as many in ours : anthers linear-oblong, not opening by up- 

 lifted valves. Ovary ovoid : stigma sessile, large, thick, and undulate. Fruit a 

 large fleshy berry. Seeds covering the very large lateral placenta, in many rows, 

 each seed enclosed in a pulpy aril, all forming a mass which fills the cavity of 

 the fruit. Perennial herbs, with creeping rootstocks and thick fibrous roots. 

 Stems 2-leaved, 1-flowered. (Name from TTOVS , a foot, and <uXXoi>, a leaf, from 

 a fancied resemblance of the 5 - 7-parted' leaf to the foot of some web-footed 

 animal.) 



1. P. pel tutu ill, L. Stamens 12-18; leaves 5-9-parted; the lobes 

 oblong, rather wedge-shaped, somewhat lobed and toothed at the apex. Rich 

 woods, common. May. Flowerless stems terminated by a large, round, 7-9- 

 lobed leaf, peltate in the middle, like an umbrella. Flowering stems bearing 2 

 one-sided leaves, with the stalk fixed near the inner edge ; the nodding white 

 flower from the fork, nearly 2' broad. Fruit ovoid, l'-2' long, ripe in July, 

 slightly acid, mawkish, eaten by pigs and boys. Leaves and roots drastic and 

 poisonous ! 



ORDER 6. NEL.UMBIACE.3E. (NELUMBO FAMILY.) 



Huge aquatics, like Water-Lilies, but the pistils distinct, forming acorn- 

 shaped nuts, and separately imbedded in cavities of the enlarged top-shaped 

 receptacle. Seeds solitary, filed with the large and highly developed embryo : 

 albumen none. Sepals and petals colored alike, in several rows, hypogy- 

 nous, as well as the numerous stamens, and deciduous. Leaves orbicular, 

 centrally peltate and cup-shaped. Embraces only the singular genus 



1. NELitlMBIUM, Juss. NELUMBO. SACRED BEAN. 



Character same as of the order. (Name Latinized from Nelumbo, the Ccy 

 lonese name of the East Indian species.) 



1. N. Ill ten in, Wilid. (YELLOW NELUMBO, or WATER CHIXQUEFIN.) 

 Corolla pale yellow : anthers tipped with a slender hooked appendage. Wa- 

 ters of the Western and Southern States ; rare in the Middle States : introduced 

 into the Delaware below Philadelphia. Big Sodus Bay, L. Ontario, and in the 

 Connecticut near Lyme ; perhaps introduced by the aborigines. June, July. 



