nema] 



Ctje Crea^ury at ^tany. 



782 



doos have a proverb founded on this pecu- ! 

 liarity of the leaves, to the effect that the 

 good and virtuous man is not enslaved by 

 passion nor polluted by vice ; for though 

 he may be immersed in the waters of temp- 

 tation, yet like a lotus leaf he will rise un- 

 injured by them. The leafstalks abound in 

 spiral fibres, which are carefully extract- 

 ed and used as wicks to burn in the temples 

 of India, before the idols. The rootstock i 

 and seeds are eaten as food in China, India, j 

 and Australia, and medicinal properties | 

 are assigned to the viscid juice of the leaf- 

 stalks. 



The young leaves of these plants float on 

 the surface of the water, but as the stalk 

 supporting them lengthens they are carried 

 upwards. The fact of the contact of the 

 lower surface of the leaf with the water, 

 together with the structure of the upper 

 surface of the leaf as before described, ac- 

 counts for the peculiar position of the 

 breathing pores or stomates, which are only 

 to be found within a small space in the 

 centre of the upper surface of the leaf op- 

 posite to its junction with the stalk. This 

 space is of a lighter colour than the rest of 

 the upper surface, and is devoid of the 

 covering of microscopic hairs, &c. The 

 breathing pores are in communication with 

 the air-canals in the stalk. [M. T. M] 



NEMA. In Greek compounds = the fila- 

 ment. 



NEMATANTHERA. The name of a 

 Surinam shrub which constitutes a genus 

 of Piperacece. The leaves are alternate, 

 oblique at the base, ribbed; the stipules 

 small, opposite the leaves, deciduous; the 

 spikes stalked, with fleshy peltate bracts, ! 

 in the axils of which the flowers are 

 placed ; the stamens two in number, with 

 very long slender anthers which separate 

 from the filament at a joint. The ovary, 

 which is in the same flowers with the 

 stamens, is sessile, with three lanceolate 

 stigmas. [M. T. M.] 



NEMATODES. Filamentous, thread- 

 like ; a term applied to Confervce. 



NEMATANTHUS. A genus of Gesnera- 

 cece inhabiting humid places in South 

 American forests, and consisting of fleshy 

 shrubs, with lengthened scandent, often 

 rooting branches ; opposite oblong leaves ; 

 solitary axillary flowers rather large in size, 

 and of a purplish colour ; aflye-cleft calyx 

 having linear segments; a corolla with 

 obconical tube gradually merging into a 

 funnel or bell-shaped expansion ; and a 

 one-celled two-valved capsule, containing 

 an indefinite number of seeds. [B. S.] 



NEMATHECIA. "Warty excrescences of 

 the fronds of certain rose-spored Algce, 

 producing tetraspores, as in Phyllophora. 



NEMATOCERAS. The five species of 

 New Zealand orchids described under this 

 generic name have now been combined 

 with Corysanthes. They are curious little 

 terrestrial plants, with solitary broad 

 membranous leaves, and solitary dirty 

 purple flowers. In technical characters 



they differ from the original species of 

 Corysanthes by having very long filiform 

 lateral sepals projecting horizontally from 

 beneath the lip, and similar long filiform 

 erect petals. [A. S.] 



NEME^E. A word used by Fries for 

 cryptogams, to indicate that they germi- 

 nate by means of the protrusion of a 

 thread, and do not possess true cotyledons. 

 It is, however, to be remarked that many 

 Algce cannot be said to germinate at all, 

 and in Selaginella and some other allied 

 Acrogens germination consists in cell- 

 division without the slightest appearance 

 of a thread. [M. J. B.] 



NEMESIA. A family of herbaceous 

 annual plants belonging to the Scrophula- 

 riacece, distinguished from Linaria by the 

 compressed capsule which opens length- 

 wise in the middle. The species are na- 

 tives of the Cape of Good Hope, and grow 

 from a few inches to a foot high or more, 

 with opposite orwhorled leaves, and ter- 

 minal racemes of unpretending flowers 

 usually of a purplish hue. [C. A. J.] 



NEMOCHLOA. A genus of cyperaceous 

 plants belonging to the Rhynehosporece, and 

 described by Steudel under Pleurostackys. 

 They are all Brazilian. [D. M.] 



NEMO PHIL A. A genus of herbaceous 

 annual plants, with diffuse brittle stems, 

 pinnatifld leaves, and conspicuous flowers, 

 belonging to the Hydrophyllaeece, and well 

 marked by the reflexed teeth between the 

 lobes of the calyx. Several species are in 

 common cultivation, of which N. insiiniis, 

 introduced by Mr. Douglas from California, 

 is by far the most beautiful, and is much 

 prized as a border plant for its showy 

 large flowers of a clear brilliant blue with 

 a white centre. N. atomaria bears white 

 flowers singularly dotted with purple- 

 black. JV. metadata has whitish flowers 

 with one large purple spot at the tip of 

 each petal. [C. A. J.] 



NEMOROSE. Growing in groves. 



NE M'OUBLIEZ PAS. (Fr.) Myosotis 

 palustris. 



NENUPHAR. (Fr.) Nymphcea. — 

 JAUNE. Nuphar. 



NEODRYAS. An inconspicuous little 

 orchid from Bolivia, with the habit of a 

 Polystachia. N. rhodoneura has flowers 

 with a concave broadly oblong cordate lip, 

 upon a long claw, through which runs an 

 obtuse crest ending, just beyond the junc- 

 tion of the claw with the lamina, in a callo- 

 sity composed of twofour-lobed plates, one 

 on the top of the other. Their column is 

 semiterete, channelled in front, and pro- 

 longed upwards into two ears which are 

 notched at the tips. The two pyriform 

 pollen-masses are attached to a reniform 

 gland by a ligulate caudicle. [A. S.] 



NEOGTNE. Proposed as a genus by the 

 youneer Reichenbach, but since reduced by 

 Lindley to a section of Ccelogyne, charac- 

 terised by its flowers being closed andhav- 



