392 RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



3. NELUMBO [Tourn.] Adans. SACRED BEAN 



The only genus of the subfamily. (Name Ceylonese.) 



1. N. lutea (Willd.) Pers. (YELLOW NELUMBO, WATER CHINQUAPIN.) 

 Leaves usually raised high out of the water, circular, 3-6 dm. in diameter, with 

 the center depressed or cupped ; flower pale yellow, 1.2-2.5 dm. broad ; anthers 

 tipped with a slender hooked appendage. (Nelumbium luteum Willd.) Con- 

 cord and Osterville, Mass., s. Ct. (probably of Indian introduction) to L. Ontario, 

 L. Erie, Mich., Minn., e. Neb., and southw. ; rare in the Middle States. Tubers 

 farinaceous and edible. Seeds also eatable. Embryo like that of Gastalia on a 

 large scale ; cotyledons thick and fleshy, inclosing a plumule of 1 or 2 well- 

 formed young leaves, inclosed in a delicate stipule-like sheath. 



N. NuclFERA Gaertn., the oriental LOTUS, with pink flowers, has become 

 established about Bordentown, N. J., where artificially introduced. 



4. BRASENIA Schreb. WATER SHIELD 



Sepals 3 or 4. Petals 3 or 4, linear, sessile. Stamens 12-18 ; filaments fili- 

 form ; anthers innate. Pistils 4-18, forming little club-shaped indehiscent pods ; 

 stigmas linear. Seeds 1-2, pendulous on the dorsal suture ! Rootstock creep- 

 ing. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, centrally peltate, oval, floating. Flowers 

 axillary, small, dull-purple. (Name of uncertain origin.) 



1. B. Schrebri Gmel. Leaves entire or shallowly crenate, 2-10 cm. across. 

 (B.peltata Pursh. ; B. purpurea Gasp.) Ponds and slow streams. June- Aug. 

 (Asia, Afr., Austral.) 



5. CAB6MBA Aublet. 



Sepals 3. Petals 3, oval, bi-auriculate above the very short claw. Stamens 

 3-6 ; anthers short, extrorse. Pistils 2-4, with small terminal stigmas. Seeds 

 3, pendulous. Slender, mainly submersed, with opposite or verticillate capil- 

 lary-dissected leaves, a few floating, alternate and centrally peltate. Flowers 

 single on long axillary peduncles. (Probably an aboriginal name.) 



1. C. caroliniana Gray. Floating leaves linear-oblong or -obovate, often with 

 a basal notch ; flowers 1.2-1.8 cm. broad, white with yellow spots at base ; sta- 

 mens 6. Ponds, s. 111. (Schneck) to Fla. and Tex. May-Sept. 



RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



Herbs or sometimes woody plants, with a colorless and usually acrid juice, 

 polypetalous, or apetalous with the calyx often colored like a corolla, hypogynous ; 

 the sepals, petals, numerous stamens, and many or few (rarely single) pistils all 

 distinct and unconnected. Flowers regular or irregular. Sepals 3-15. Petals 

 2-15, or wanting. Stamens indefinite, rarely few. Fruits either dry pods, or 

 seed-like (achenes), or berries. Seeds anatropous (when solitary and suspended 

 the rhaphe dorsal), with hard albumen and a minute embryo. Leaves often dis- 

 sected, their stalks dilated at the base, sometimes with stipule-like appendages. 

 A large family, including some acrid-narcotic poisons. 



Tribe I. ANEMONEAE. Sepals 3-20, often petal-like, imbricated in the bud. Stamens irostly 

 numerous. Achenes numerous or several, in a head or spike. Herbs, never climbing ; leaves 

 alternate or radical, the upper sometimes opposite or whorled. 



* Petals evident ; sepals usually 5 ; achenes many. 



1. Ranunculus. Petals 5 (or rarely more), yellow or white, with a scale or gland at base 

 Achenes numerous, capitate. Seed erect or ascending. 



