184 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 



In the north woods of Herkimer, Hamilton and Essex counties, all lakes 

 ponds, marshes are full of a Nymphaa, which doubtless is this variety: if so, 

 the true N. odorata has not been observed in this State west of the valley of 

 the Hudson river. June - August. 



The plant referred to as "The variety with inodorous flowers", is the 

 following : 



tuberosa, sp. noil. Tuber-bearing Nymphaa. 



Rhizomate longe repente crasso e lateribus tuberifero , stipulis lunatis 

 multum oblique decurrentibus ubique relictis ; foliis orbiculatis subtus 

 prominenter venosis, auriculis srepissime acuminatis ; fioribus pasne in- 

 odoris ; connective) staminum exteriorum supra antheram in cuspidem 

 elongato ; arillo seminum obsoleto vel brevi cupulreformi rarius completo. 

 Rhizoma deeply imbedded in mud, running horizontally, sending down 

 in clusters long chord-like roots furnished with innumerable fibrous ra- 

 dicles, rarely branching, three to six feet long, one to two inches thick, 

 varying in size but not regularly interrupted, with an uneven surface, 

 somewhat compressed, scattered with short pubescence, bearing tubers 

 from its sides, which are frailly connected by their bases narrowed into 

 necks only one to three lines in diameter, usually short, often half an inch 

 in length. Tubers oval, one to three inches long, half to three-fourths of 

 .an inch thick, with a rough tubercular surface, the tubercles elevated just 

 back of the buds of elementary leaves, arranged in eight perpendicular 

 series with five spiral rows in one direction to three in the other, bearing 

 both roots and tubers when present ; the tubers often in clusters from being 

 repeatedly proliferous, sometimes occurring so frequently as to conceal the 

 trunk, becoming separate plants when detached. Stipules in the axils of the 

 petioles and embracing them by long lobes, shorter than broad, crescent- 

 shaped, with thin wavy margins. Petioles and peduncles striate with nerves 

 and crimson veins, often pubescent above in lines with long silky purple 

 hairs. Leaves of two forms •: submerged form short-petioled, thin and 

 transparent, the lobes divaricate and forming a right-angle at base ; floating 

 leaves large, from eight to eighteen inches in diameter, exactly orbicular, 

 sometimes retuse with sides contracted becoming angular, entire or undu- 

 late margined, green with a dark centre and even above, light-green or a 

 little yellow below, with prominent nerves of which on each side twelve 

 radiate from the centre and five to seven from the strong channelled mid- 

 rib, sometimes having a few brown hairs along the veins and edges of the 

 division ; lobes approximate, parallel, or meeting in the largest forms, 

 ending with an acute point and a sinus. Flowers two to four inches long, 

 expanding four to seven, exhaling a slight vanilla-like fragrance at opening, 

 but soon inodorous. Sepals four, green without, light within, as long as 

 the flower. Petals many, the outer tinged with green externally, the inner 

 snow-white, oblanceolate in outline, delicately straight-veined. Anthers 

 yellow, long with converging cells, the connective elongated into a mi- 

 nute red cusp. Appendages of the stigma sixteen to twenty, short, obtuse, 

 at first ascending and lying against the filaments, soon curving over as 

 many rays of the disk. End of the central axis short, a line or more high, 

 convex. Capsule globose or oblate, when maturing drawn to the bottom 

 by the spiral coiling of the peduncle. Seeds acorn-shaped, red, with the 

 usual raphe. Arillus defective, commonly a shallow cup surrounding the 

 base of the seed, sometimes investing it halfway, or occasionally a mere 

 rudiment, and rarely complete. 



A larger plant than the other species, equal in beauty but wanting in 

 fragrance. From N . odorata, var. minor, of course it is as remote as possible 

 in every part. From N. odorata itself, it differs in its peculiar tubers, great 

 leaves, large flowers of little odor, and imperfect arils. From N. alba of 

 Europe, in addition to the tubers, it is separate by a continuous stem instead 



