Plate 29. 



NYMPHAEA stellata. 



Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal, Rhodesia. 



Nymphaeaceae. Tribe Nymphaeae. 

 Nymphaea, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook./. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 46. 



Nymphaea stellata, Willd. Sp. PL vol. ii. p. 1153 ; Fl. Gap. vol. i. p. 14. 



A common water plant in many of our South African 

 rivers and vleis, and it is not surprising that such a handsome 

 species soon found its way to cultivators in Europe. Masson, 

 about the year 1792, appears to have first introduced it into 

 England by forwarding specimens from the Cape to the Eoyal 

 Gardens at Kew. It was not long before coloured plates 

 appeared in the botanical publications of the day, and the 

 first of these was published in 1801 in the Botanical Magazine 

 and about the same time in Andrews' Botanist's Repository. 

 A second figure again appeared in the Botanical Magazine 

 about 18 years later. The species, commonly known as the 

 "Blue Water Lily" (Zulu "i-Ziba"), is easy of cultivation, 

 and is found in most garden ponds in South Africa. Our 

 illustration was made from specimens growing in the aquarium 

 of the Natal Herbarium, Durban. 



Description : — An aquatic plant with a submerged rhi- 

 zome from which the floating leaves and flowers are produced. 

 Rhizome 4-5 cm. in diameter, black and spongy. Leaves about 

 6 to each rhizome ; petiole long or short according to the 

 depth of the water, terete, striate, thickly clothed with trans- 

 parent hairs; lamina green above, brownish beneath, up to 

 30 cm. long and 20-26 cm. broad, orbicular or elliptic, rounded 

 at the apex, and with a deep acute triangular notch at the 

 base, with entire or sometimes wavy margins, and prominent 

 veins beneath, glabrous. Peduncles longer than the petioles, 

 raising the flower well above the surface of the water. Sepals 

 4, green outside, blue within, 4-6 cm. long, 1*5-2 cm. broad, 

 ovate-oblong, acuminate. Petals numerous, about 4 cm. long, 

 1 cm. broad, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, blue. Torus thick, 

 fleshy. Stamens numerous, in several rows ; filaments 



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