. 
472 NUPHAR POLYSEPALUM. 
PHYLLOTAXIS. — The attempt to harmonize the very unusual disposition of the organs with the 
ordinary laws of phyllotaxis has produced some very odd theories. A rather specious explanation 
seems to be the following: the flower might be the termination of the main stem, which has five 
distichous foliaceous organs, C, a, b, d, and e; the lowest leaf, C, bears one branch, 7, and the second, 
a, another branch, 7, which at last becomes the continuation of the stem ; in the first the twin scales 
f and g, in the second the leaf C, stand opposite to the supporting organs. Thus all the foliaceous 
organs would be distichous, but the branches r and ¢ would not harmonize, 7 being left without a 
leaf C. The principal objection, however, to this explanation is the unmistakable continuation of 
the structure in what I have considered the stem, while in the peduncle it is reversed just as it is in 
the brane ; 
Usr.— The tubers and the seeds of Nelumbium are edible and highly nutritive, both being 
replete with amylum; but they have been eaten only by the aborigines! The boiled seeds closely 
resemble chestnuts in taste. Some of the largest tubers, obtained about the end of September, I had 
cooked ; they were not done as soon as potatoes, and retained much more firmness; baked, they 
were much more palatable than boiled, and had a pleasant, sweet, and mealy taste, considerably 
resembling that of sweet potatoes, without anything reminding one of their growth in stagnant 
water. The decomposing tubers become gray, and at last black, the inside assuming a beautiful 
purple color, and a very fetid odor, somewhat resembling that of rotten potatoes. The purple color 
is produced by deep purple globules forming in the cells, one in each, and considerably larger than 
the starch granules ; undoubtedly some rudimentary fungoid production. 
From Parry’s PHystIoGRAPHY OF THE Rocky Mountains, Appenpix (Trans. St, Lovis AcaD. OF SCIENCE, PROCEEDINGS, 
Vou. II. 1865). 
NUPHAR POLYSEPALUM, 7. sp.: foliis late ovatis sinu angusto profunde cordatis; floris magni sepalis 9-12 
concavis mediis maximis, petalis 12-18 spatulatis retusis, staminum numerosissimorum antheris apice truncato- [283] 
appendiculatis filamenta demum recurva equantibus seu eis brevioribus, ovarii urceolati striati radiis stigma- 
tosis 13-21 disci umbilicati marginem crenatum fere attingentibus ; bacca versus apicem constrictum nec rostratum 
suleata. 
n small lakes, in the higher aed begripee from the sources of the Platte, near Long’s Peak, lat. 40°, to 
those oz the Columbia River, lat. 44°. F. V. Hayden collected it in the then Capt. W. F. Raynold’s Expedition, 
on June 20, 1860, in a small lake, sana Henry’s Fork and Snake Fork of the Columbia River, at an altitude of 
6,500 feet. Miss Merrill, in the year 1862, brought from Gibson’s Lake, near Long’s Peak, some of the large reddish 
sepals, verifying her vague account of the plant; and, finally, Dr. Parry gathered ample material and full notes, 
which have been largely used in the following description, in Osborn’s Lake, in the same region, at an altitude of 
8,800 feet, where it grows with Menyanthes trifoliata, Utricularia intermedia, Scirpus, Carex, ete.; he found it in flower 
in August, the temperature of the water being at the time 58 degrees. 
Th es are more like those of Nuphar luteum of Europe than those of our N. advena, being oval in outline, 
not deltoid-orbicular, and with a narrower, more closed sinus, the obtuse lobes more gradually separating from one 
another, In N. advena I find the sinus often of 75 degrees; the lobes are then triangular, with acutish points ; but 
this form of the sinus, and shape of the leaf, is by no means constant, for whenever the substance of the leaf is more 
fully developed, the lobes become broader, more obtuse, and the sinus, of course, narrower, as I find it in specimens 
from Arkansas ; while sometimes, as in specimens from Houston, Texas, the sinus becomes closed up, and the lobes 
even overlap. 
The leaves of our species were floating when observed ; five of them were 83-93 inches long and 6}-7} inches 
wide; these five leaves, and five of N. luteum, give each an average proportion of length to width as 10 to 8, while 
the same number of leaves of N. advena, from different parts of the United StAtes, gives the proportion of 10 to 9. 
The difference seems small enough, but in the appearance of the leaf is quite striking. I notice, also, a difference in 
the venation of the leaves of these three species, there being, in our species, siete three times as many veins con- 
nected with the midrib as issue from the base, while in both the other species I observe only about twice as many 
? The Chariton River in Missouri, after which Chariton County is named, is said to derive its name from the Indian 
word for Nelumbiwm, a plant very abundant there and highly esteemed by the Indians, 
haa ne Re i IE 
