470 ~ REMARKS ON NELUMBIUM LUTEUM. 
exactly like the one described before; so, however, that the scale a has a direction opposite to that 
of f and g ; consequently, d with P and C with 7 have the same direction as f and 9. 
The following diagram will explain the arrangement and the repetition of the different organs : 
F F 
eid eld 
4 4 
oKor-r P eo fo 7 
: A 
< ra 
blo 4 sic. 4% 
a a 
Stem. — The long internode, not quite cylindrical, but depressed and somewhat channelled above, 
is traversed by 6-9 principal air channels or tubes, of unequal size, arranged in a circle, with nu- 
merous smaller peripheral and one central one. The nodes are almost solid, but beyond them, in the 
next internode, the tubes are continued even with their irregularities and peculiarities, adding new 
ones when the plant becomes stouter. In both axillary productions, the peduncle and the branch, 
the arrangement of the tubes is reversed. In the full-grown plant the internode is commonly 12-20 
inches long and 5-8 or even 9 lines in diameter. I usually find a pair of small tubes above, 2 or 3 
pairs of large ones on the sides, and a single middle-sized tube below. In the embryo a pair, some- 
times more or less confluent, occupies the side of the lowest leaf, an odd one the side of the second 
leaf, and 4 or sometimes 5 others the intervening spaces. The stem of smallest size has a small pair 
above, a large pair on the sides, and a middle-sized pair below ; in larger stems a seventh odd tube 
appears between the lowest pair, and in full-grown ones an upper pair of small ones completes the 
circle of nine tubes. In the peduncle the same system of tubes is reproduced (not always so regular) 
in an inverse order, so that the small pair is found on the anterior side, or on the side opposite its 
supporting scale. The branch has at first always six tubes, the smallest pair on the lower side oppo- 
site to the supporting leaf. This arrangement, however, is usually only visible near the origin of the 
branch, because the upward tendency of the developing leaf and flower, which in the bud are directed 
downwards, imparts to the tender, growing shoot a rotation half around its axis, thus righting them- 
selves, and bringing, in the anterior part of the internode, the pair of small tubes to the upper side. 
Where circumstances, such as hardness of soil in very dry seasons, prevent this rotation or twist, the 
different organs curve from under the branch upwards to the light. As the branch grows, more 
tubes are added in the succeeding internodes, just as in the parent stem, from which henceforth it 
does not differ at all, shooting up a flower and a leaf at each repetition of its simple cycle, and 
gradually overrunning the whole bottom of the pond with their network. 
Thus the plant continues to grow until some time in August, after the flowering period is 
passed, it prepares for winter by depositing in the now shortened and thickened jaternodes or [138] 
joints a large quantity of starch as food for the young plants, which in the succeeding season 
spring from the terminal bud at the tip and the axillary bud at the base of the tuber. These tubers 
are 5-10 inches long, 1-2 inches in diameter, somewhat spindle-shaped, depressed, and not rarely 
angled and furrowed, and weigh 2-8 ounces ; they are traversed by the same system of tubes as the 
summer stems ; the tubes, however, are mostly of a more irregular shape and more or less compressed. 
Our plant having no truly perennial rootstock like its relatives, the Nymphwacee, the tubers and 
their buds are the only parts which live through winter, much like those of the potato. 
LEAVES. — All the foliaceous organs, with the exception of those in the flower proper, are either 
distichously alternate, or they are superimposed in the order detailed above. The lowest scale, a, is 
