2 ae x PE 
ON THE DIMORPHISM OF DRABA BRACHYCARPA. 473 
from the midrib as from the base. It may, in this connection, not be out of place to state that, as far as my observa- 
tions extend, all the species of Nuphar can be readily distinguished from all those of Nymphea by their 
venation, the former having by far the largest number of secondary ribs connected with the midrib, while in [284] 
ymphea most ribs are basilar, and few only come from the midrib. 
The flowers of our plant emerge a few inches above the surface of the water; they are the largest of any known 
Nuphar, and are composed of from 9 to 12 sepals, many more than we find in any other species, whence the name. 
The sepals being concave, and “the inner ones curved in, partially concealing the greater part of the dense mass of 
stamens,” the flower becomes “ globular cup-shaped,” and is about 3 inches in diameter, while, when fully laid open, it 
measures 43-5 inches. The sepals are arranged, not, as it was at first supposed, in 3 or 4 whorls of 3 sepals each, but 
in ;*; disposition, or, perhaps, the outer ones in 3 divergence, gradually changing into ,&. The sepals increase in 
size and petaloid appearance from the outermost or first to the 7th or 8th, when they decrease again in size, but 
become of more delicate petaloid structure and color; the three outer ones are oval, 1}-1} inches long, green with 
yellowish margins; the 2 or 3 next ones are orbicular, 2-24 inches long, and of a yellowish green color; the following 
ones are the largest, 2} inches long, 3 inches in diameter, transverse in shape, broadly spatulate at base, and retuse or 
truncate above ; they are yellow, and often “tinged with the red of a deep peach blush, especially in fading;” and 
the innermost are smaller again, spatulate-orbicular, often emarginate, 1-14 inches long, yellow, or, especially on the 
edges, reddish brown. Dr. Parry has repeatedly observed transitions between these inner sepals and the petals. 
The petals themselves are spatulate, truncate, 12-18 in number, “9 lines long and 6 lines broad ;” in the dried 
specimens I find them only 5 lines long and from 2 to 4 lines wide ; in Dr. Parry’s specimens they are “deep red in 
the middle and yellow at the base and tip.” 
The stamens, much more numerous than in the allied species, together with the anthers and the appendage, are 
deep red, relieved by the bright yellow color of the (oval, hispid, as in the genus) pollen, the outer ones broader and 
shorter, the inner ones narrower and longer; at maturity they are recurved. 
The stigmatic disc is deeply umbilicate, and bears 13-21 (usually 16-19) stigmatic rays, which extend near to 
the irregularly crenate margin ; it has a green or a deep red color, or red, edged with yellow, and has, in the dried 
specimens before me, a diameter of 9-11 lines. In N. luteum the disc is similarly formed, while in all the western 
specimens of N. advena (I have no others at my disposal) I invariably find the disc entire or undulate, and the rays 
not extending to the margin. 
The fruit found by Dr, Parry, only half ripe, is “smooth, glossy, deep green, and furrowed, especially [285] 
towards the top ;” dry, it is 1} inches long, and 1} inches in diameter. 
The flowers of Dr. Parry’s plant are more highly colored than that of Dr. Hayden’s, and may preserve the name 
of var. pictum, which the discoverer has applied to the species; it seems to bear the same relation to the duller col- 
ored northern form that N. luteum, var. rubro-petalum (Caspary in Schriften der phys. dkon. Gesellsch. zu Kénigsberg, 
vol. 2, 1861, tab. 1), does to the common European plant ; in that variety the stamens as well as the dis? are yellow, 
like the sepals, only the petals, and especially their upper surface, are “ brown blood-red.” On page 50, Prof. Caspary 
alludes to our N. advena as being more frequently found with red petals and points of stamens than with yellow ones, 
a fact which will be new to many of our botanists, as, at least in the Western and Southwestern States, a red tinge 
has not been observed by them.! — July 27, 1865. 
ll ON THE DIMORPHISM OF DRABA BRACHYCARPA. 
FroM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ACADEMY OF ScIENcE or Sr. Lovts, Vou. II. 1862. 
Tus humble white flower is at this season very abundant on the grassy hills about [154] 
town, associated with Draba Caroliniana, the pretty Houstonia minima, with Androsace 
occidentalis, Plantago pusilla, Ranunculus fascicularis, Myosurus minimus, and the completely natu- 
ralized Capsella. In ordinary-or in wet springs the flowers are all regularly formed and compar- 
atively large, having a diameter of about 2 lines; in very dry springs, however, such as the present 
one, a form with very inconspicuous flowers becomes common, which in isolated specimens in the 
1 After this was written, I received from Prof. A. Gray a sepals, red-tipped petals and reddish ovary and stigmatic 
specimen of Nuphar advena, found in Massachusetts, with a disc ; the outer stamens only showed a slight red tinge just 
brownish-red tinge on the outer, and a red blush on the inner below the polliniferous part. 
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