386 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDERS. 



or partly encloses and adheres to the pistil ; the inner series gradu- 

 ally changing into stamens. Stamens numerous, in several rows, 

 inserted into the torus with or above the petals ; many of the outer 

 filaments petaloid (Fig. 344), the adnate anthers introrse. Fruit in- 

 dehiscent, pulpy when ripe, many-celled, crowned with the radiate 

 stigmas ; the anatropous seeds covering the spongy dissepiments. 

 Embryo small, enclosed in a membranous bag, which is next the 

 hilum, and half immersed in the mealy albumen. Structure of the 

 trunk appearing rather endogenous than exogenous. — Ex. Nym- 

 phaea, the White Water-Lily ; Kuphar, the Yellow Pond-Lily ; and 



the magnificent Victoria of tropical South America, the most gigan- 

 tic and showy of aquatics, both as to its flowers and its leaves. Mu- 

 cilaginous plants, with slight astringency ; no important properties. 



750. Ord. Cahombaceae (Water-shield Family) is really merely a 

 simplified state of the last, with only one series of sepals and petals, 



FIG. 677. Open flower, Tvith a flower-bud and leaf of the White Water-Lily (Nymphsea 

 odorata) ; the inner petals passing into stamens. 678. A flower with all the parts aronnd the 

 pistil cut away except one of the petaloid stamens, one intermediate, and one proper stamen. 

 679. An inner petal, with the imperfect rudiments of an anther at the tip. 680. TransTerse 

 section of an ovary. 



