9S NELUMBIACEiE. 



Fruit consisting of 12 to 25 acorn-like nuts immersed in 

 the hollows of the dry, top-shaped torus, tipped with the 

 persistent stigma : the pericarp coriaceo-crustaceous. Seed 

 suspended, soon loose in the cell, globular : testa membrana- 

 ceous. Albumen none. Embryo filling the seed : radicle 

 extremely short, superior : cotyledons thick, fleshy, hemi- 

 spherical, hollowed within, the two joined by their edges 

 form a globose, albumen-like body, inclosing a highly de- 

 veloped green plumule, which is covered by an extremely 

 delicate membranous sheath, and consists of 2 or 3 ready- 

 formed leaves with their petioles imiexed. 



Herbs growing in water ; with very large and orbicular 

 entire centrally peltate leaves, and solitary long-peduncled 

 flowers, floating on the surface or raised above it, arising 

 from a prostrate tuberous rhizoma. Vernation involute. 



Etymology. Nelumbo, the Ceylonese name of the Oriental species. 



Properties and Affinity. Same as of Nymphameeae ; of which Nelura- 

 bium is only a peculiar apocarpous form, with the embryo in a further de- 

 veloped, or as it were germinating, state, at the expense of the albumen. — 

 The seeds and the farinaceous rootstocks are edible. 



Geographical Distribution. Of this genus, so remarkable for the great 

 size of the leaves and flowers, there are perhaps two species indigenous to 

 the warmer parts of Asia, and one in the United States, and also in Jamaica. 



PLATE 40, 41. Nelumbium luteum, Willd. ; — from specimens from 

 the Delaware River, communicated by Miss Dix and Miss Morris. 



1. A leaf; a small one, and considerably reduced. 



2. Flower-bud and peduncle ; of the natural size. 



3. Flower of the natural size, showing the summit of the torus, &c. 



4. Vertical section of the torus and receptacle, dividing one of the ovaries. 



5. A stamen, enlarged ; inside view. 



6. A detached pistil, enlarged ; and 7, same, with the ovary divided. 



8. The top-shaped torus in ripe fruit ; natural size. 



9. A fruit, with the pericarp divided, showing the contained seed. 



10. Same, with the seed, cotyledons, and the contained plumule, divided. 



11. Embryo detached and reversed; the cotyledons opened to show the 



plumule in its transparent delicate sac. 



12. Plumule, with the sac removed. 



13. The same, magnified, spread out ; the lower leaf cut across. 



