190 
But there are some points of special interest 
that may not be generally known, that we will 
notice. Altogether there are about thirty ac- 
cepted species, five of which are found growing 
within the limits of the United States. 
Nymphaea odorata (Aiton).—This is our 
common American water lily, and is familiar 
to all. It*has large, orbicular, floating leaves, 
often six inches in diameter, attached to the 
stem at near the centre, and cleft from the 
base to the insertion of the stem. The flowers 
are white, often shaded more or less with pink ; 
very fragrant; opening with the sun in the 
morning but closing again about 3 P. M., about 
five and a half inches in diameter more or less 
double, or petals arranged in fours in many 
rows, imbricated so as to cover the whole of 
the ovary. But of all strange flowers the .V. 
odorata are the most interesting to botanists, 
from the fact of its showing the gradual and 
perfect graduation of forms from stamens to 
pistils and thence to sepals. 
We find under cultivation the flowers usually 
last two days in perfection, but after the second 
day the closed flower sinks gradually down in 
the water and ripens the seed, the decaying 
petals still adhering to the ovary. The root- 
stocks of V. odorata are long, roundish and 
often as large as a man’s arm. They make 
their growth from the end, creeping along the 
bottom and lie buried in the mud, with from a 
few inches of water over them, to several feet. 
Upon cutting the root or leafstems they are 
found to contain a large amount of milky juice, 
often farinaceous, and are consequently often 
used for food. 
NV. odorata minor (Sims).—This is a rare va- 
riety, and may be said to be only a dwarf or. 
stunted variety, growing in shallow water and 
in cold bogs or sandy soil. The flowers are 
NATURE'S REALM, 
white and two or three inches in diameter, with 
leaves from two to five inches broad. 
NV. tuberosa (Paine).—Very similar to J. 
odorata in general appearance. The leaves 
reniform, orbicular, about a foot broad and 
very prominently ribbed; flowers from four 
and a half to nine inches in diameter; petals 
broad and blunt, pure white, never pinkish ; 
scentless, or with a faint odor of apples ; root- 
stock bearing tubers often compound which 
spontaneously detach themselves. 
NV. odorata rosea.—This is the famous Cape 
Cod water lily, and the grandest acquisition 
ever made to our list of hardy Nymphaea. It 
possesses all the desirable qualities of the 
white-flowered species—hardiness, freedom of 
bloom and delicious fragrance, with the added 
charm of a deep pink color. 
N. alba,—This is the native water lily of 
England and Germany. The flowers are 
white, the petals broader and more waxy than 
iV. oderata. It begins to bloom earlier and 
remains in bloom longer than our native Nym- 
phaea. 
NN. coerulea.—The blue lotus of the Nile has 
large, fragrant, sky-blue flowers; leaves float- 
ing, crenate; lobes partly united and becom- 
ing peltate. 
NV. lotus has large white flowers, tinted with 
pink; sepals red at the margins; leaves 
strongly toothed and the under side promi- 
nently veined; grow in the slow-running 
streams and rice fields of Egypt. 
NV. edulis has white flowers and contains an 
abundance of starch in its roots, and is a valu- 
able article of diet in India. This variety, as 
well as the dentata, rubra, devontensis and 
others, are night bloomers (the flowers open 
after six in the evening and close again in the 
morning), and supposed to be modified forms 
of NV. lotus. 

