Ord. NYMPH^ACEH. 



Herbee aquaticse, foliis plerumque peltatis floribusque po- 

 lymeris natantibus : dicotyledoneae, polypetalre ; petalis et 

 staminibus indefinitis, toro hypogyno crasso vel ovario pluri- 

 loculari multiovulato imbricatim insertis ; ovulis parietibus 

 dissepimentorum insertis ; bacca polyspermia ; embryone in- 

 tra sacculum proprium incluso, albuminis fovea superficiali 

 basilari applicito ; cotyledonibus carnosis plumulam inclu- 

 dentibus. 



Nwphsacm, Salisb. in Ann. Bot. 2. p. 69. (excl. gen.) DC. Prop. 

 Med. ed. 2. & Syst. 2. p. 30. Bartl. Ord. p. 88. Lindl. Introd. 

 Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 10. Endl. Gen. p. 898. 



The Water-Lily Family is the first of the series which exhibits a truly 

 compound pistil, formed by the union of a whorl of carpels into one syncar- 

 pous ovary. It also furnishes instances of the partial cohesion of the floral 

 envelopes with each other, and especially with the surface of the compound 

 ovary. It likewise affords the finest examples of the gradual transition of 

 sepals into petals, and of petals into stamens ; as in the White Water-Lily, 

 in which every intermediate gradation may be traced between the naked pe- 

 tals and perfect stamens of the ordinary structure and appearance. Both the 

 petals and stamens are numerous, or indefinite, and imbricated in several 

 series. The pistil consists of several (six to fifteen or more) cells ; that is, 

 of as many carpels, vertieillate and coalescent in a solid mass around a cen- 

 tral axis. 



A remarkable characteristic of this family is found in the insertion of the 

 ovules. These are scattered over the whole face of the dissepiments, that is 

 to say, " the whole internal surface of the carpels is equally ovuliferous," 

 instead of the inner angle or suture only, as in all ordinary cases. Indeed, 

 the inner angle of the cells in Nymphsea and Nuphar is the only part of the 

 surface which is not ovuliferous, or scarcely so. The tendency to produce 

 ovules is greatest towards the middle and posterior part of the parieties, and 

 (in Nuphar) at or near the dorsal angle itself. This fact, viewed in con- 

 nection with the circumstance already mentioned under Cabomba (p. 93), 

 namely, that one of its ovules is often found attached to the wall of the cell 



