56 NYMPH^EACE^E. (water-lilt family.) 



pressed or cupped, l°-2° in diameter. Flower 5' -10' broad. Tubers farina- 

 ceous and edible. Seeds also eatable. Embryo like tbat of Nymphaaa on a 

 large scale. Cotyledons thick and fleshy, enclosing a plumule of 1 or 2 well- 

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



3. NYMPH2EA, Tourn. Water-Nymph. Water-Lilt. 



Sepals 4, green outside, nearly free. Petals numerous, in many rows, the 

 innermost gradually passing into stamens, imbricately inserted all over the 

 surface of the ovary. Stamens indefinite, inserted on the ovary, the outer 

 with dilated filaments. Ovary 18-30-celled, the concave summit tipped with a 

 globular projection at the centre, around which are the radiate stigmas ; these 

 project at the margin, and are extended into linear and incurved sterile ap- 

 pendages. Fruit depressed-globular, covered with the bases of the decayed 

 petals, maturing under water. Seeds enveloped by a sac-like aril. — Flowers 

 white, rose-color, or blue, very showy. (Dedicated by the Greeks to the Water- 

 Nymphs.) 



1. N. odorata, Ait. (Sweet-scented Water-Lily.) Leaves orbic- 

 ular, cordate-cleft at the base to the petiole (5' -9' wide), the margin entire; 

 stipules broadly triangular or almost kidney-shaped, notched at" the apex, ap- 

 pressed to the rootstock ; flower white, very street scented (often as much as 5^' 

 in diameter when fully expanded, opening early in the morning, closing in the 

 afternoon) ; petals obtuse ; aril much longer than the distinctly stipitate oblong 

 seeds (these about 1^'long; anthers blunt). — Ponds and still or slow-flowing 

 water : common eastward and southward. June - Sept. — Varies with pinkish- 

 tinged and rarely with bright pink-red flowers (especially at Barnstable, Mass.), 

 the leaves often crimson underneath, — and in size by gradations into 



Var. minor, Sims (N. minor, DC, &c.), with leaves only 2'- 5' and flowers 

 2' -3' broad. — Shallow water, in cold bogs and in sandy soil. 



2. N. tuberdsa, Paine, Cat. PI. Oneida, 1865. (Tuber-bearing W.) 

 Leaves reniform-orbicular, mostly larger (8' -15' wide) and more prominently 

 ribbed than the last, green both sides ; rootstock bearing numerous spontaneously 

 detaching often compound tubers ; flower scentless (or with a slight odor as of 

 apples, white, never pinkish, 4£' - 9' in diameter, the petals, as in N. alba, pro- 

 portionally broader and blunter than in No. 1 ) ; the fruit more depressed, and 

 with fewer but much larger (i. e. twice as broad) globular-ovoid seeds which when 

 mature are barely enclosed by 'the aril, and not stipitate. (N. alba, Nutt. Gen. 

 N. reniformis, DC? scarcely of Walter, which is very obscure.) — Lakes, slow 

 rivers, &c, W. New York (from Oneida Lake, Paine) and near Meadville, Penn. 

 ( W. L. Chaffin) to Michigan, Illinois, aud probably in the Southern States. 

 July - Sept. 



4. NttPHAR, Smith. Yellow Pond-Lily. Spatter-Dock. 



Sepals 5, 6, or sometimes more, colored, or partly green outside, roundish. 

 Petals numerous, small and thickish, stamen-like or scale-like, inserted with 

 the very numerous aud short stamens on the receptacle under the ovary, not 



