THE AMERICAN WATER LILY. 9 
The full grown leaf has been found to measure in winter time, usually, about four feet in diameter, and in midsummer, six or six and a half feet ; this 
last size being the largest that it has been known to attain. During the intervening months, (that is, from August to the last of December,) the diameter 
gradually lessens in extent. From the last mentioned season onward to August, the leaves rapidly increase in size, the largest leaf being produced in the 
month of July. Many stories of their more extraordinary development may be set down as entirely unworthy of credit, 
THE BUD. 
The flower-bud is of a large size, and when fully grown, just previous to its expanding, it measures from six to nine inches from the base to the tip of 
the sepals or calyx leaves. Its width or transverse diameter is from three and a half to four and a half inches. Each bud comes from the crown of the 
root or base of the plant, and at the surface of the soil, and is accompanied by a leaf-bud, which rises with it. I had imagined that they came out enclosed 
together, but I found that this is not the case. From repeated observation, I have perceived that the leaf issues from the central scale, which closes upon 
its opposite twin scale, after the leaf has risen a few inches; and there it remains, as before the appearance of the leaf. The flower-bud issues from the 
outside of this scale, between it and an outer one, and is furnished with a stem (peduncle) of similar character to that of the leaf (petiole), being armed 
with prickles even to the summit of the bud, the sepals or calyx leaves, even, being spiny. ‘These sepals or calycine leaves are four in number. They are 
of a deep purple color, fading at the edges into a dull white, thick, coriaceous in their texture, and continuations of the thick, fleshy and prickly calyx tube, 
which partakes of the same color. 
FLOWER. 
The flowers consist of from fifty to sixty petals in three distinct sets, each growing smaller towards the stamens. The outer petals are, on expansion, of 
a pure white color, and are from six to seven inches in length. Tmagine a most delicate tissue of lace, with the interstices filled with some semi-transparent 
white substance, yet so soft and tender as to bruise under a slight pressure. This frail and almost gauze-like tissue is soon converted into a filmy paste, 
when the flower declines upon the surface of the water after it has finished its blossoming. 
BLOOMING. 
The buds under my observation have been, as they approached the moment of bursting, gradually enlarging at the top, the calyx lobes loosening and 
separating from, yet leaving the petals firmly closed. At two, P. M., the peculiar pine-apple odor has filled the air of the house, and between the hours of 
four and five, the petals have expanded, Frequently one, immediately followed by others, would suddenly burst off, with a nervous spring, almost at right 
angles. By seven, the bud has assumed the appearance of a huge magnolia in form and color, but the numerous petals produced a more beautiful flower. 
All the flowers have been pure white at this, the first night of inflorescence, and they have remained so until the succeeding day has somewhat advanced, 
when the outer petals, following the lobes, would reflect, leaving a central portion, not yet expanded, erect, as seen in Plate No. 4. At this moment, tinges 
and rays or veins of pink can be discovered spreading up and over the white petals, which, before evening, become quite colored. In this change, however, 
the flowers differ, some being more highly colored than others, At meridian, this reflexed flower again closes, and remains as a partially opened bud till 
four in the afternoon, when it again expands, and at this time, the petals, that formed the upright or central portion of the reflexed form, spread out, pre- 
senting a beautiful crimson-marked petal upon a pure white; and here no two flowers can be said to exactly resemble each other, being variously marked. 
Sometimes the white ground appears as if the crimson had been accidentally rained in many different-sized drops upon them, with here and there a petal 
upon which the shower descended with such force as to color the whole, Again, a succeeding flower will be marked so exquisitely, in such nice lines, and 
with such well-defined limits, that you can searcely realize you are looking upon the product of the same plant. Between the hours of six and seven, yet 
another change comes on; a third set of rigid, firmer, smaller petals rise up and stand in an erect position, yet curved somewhat, opening to view the centre 
with the golden-colored stamens, at this moment assuming the appearance of a coronet. These third petals have sometimes been of a pinkish salmon color, 
when first exposed to view; at other times, of a pinkish crimson ;—when of the former, however, they have soon, by exposure to the light and air, become 
of the pinkish crimson. 
In the coloring shown by the flowers in these last stages, we notice a difference on comparing them with the representations of those that have bloomed 
in England. I have never seen one with any yellow on the petal, or that had so much of the yellow tinge as is represented in the drawings illustrating the 
work of Sir W. J. Hooker, a crimson or pure white taking the place of the yellow, and producing a most brilliant flower. 
At nine o’clock, P. M., the inflorescence is usually perfected, when the stamens and the interior or under side of the third set of petals assume the 
staminate yellow color. Soon after ten, the closing process commences, which slowly continues during the successive day, when the outer petals become of 
a dingy rose color, and the decaying remains sink under the water. A more full description of the blooming will be found in the accounts of the plants of 
Mr. Cope and others. 
STAMENS. 
“Tn Nympheaceous plants, ihe stamens are seen passing, by gradations, into petals; but in the Victoria, there is a clearly defined limit between the 
stamens and petals, best seen in Plate 4, where a circle of erect petaloid bodies encloses six or seven series of most decided stamens. All these, inserted 
upon the top or back of the torus, may be looked upon as the staminal crown. The stamens, composing the innermost rank of them, are sterile, thick, 
fleshy, lie densely packed nearly horizontally, yet in an ascending direction upon the back of appendages to the stigma, generally one to every two such 
appendages, and they seem slightly to cohere with them. The next four or five ranks which surround the innermost ones consist of perfect stamens ; fila- 
ments broadly subulate, red, fleshy, but rigid, bearing the yellowish, linear, two-celled anther on its inner face, below the sharp apex; the cells separated by 
@ natrow connective, and sunk in the substance of the filament. Around these is a rank or circle of petaloid stamens, yellow, tipped with red, and bearing 
