Ntmph^a.] NYMPSJEACU^. 33 



over the walls of the cells. Fruit formed of the connate carpels, or 

 of separate and indehiscent carpels, or of the enlarged turbinate 

 flat-topped disk with the nut-like carpels sunk in its crown. Seeds 

 naked or arilled ; albumen floury or ; embryo inclosed in the 

 large amniotic sac. Temperate and tropical. 



Leaves floating, seeds albuminous 



Smooth herbs with white pink or red 



floating flowers . . . .1. Nymph-sia. 



A prickly herb with violet -coloured 

 partially submerged flowers . . 2. Buryale. 



Leaves and flowers raised above the surface 



of the water, seeds exalbuminous . 3. Is^elumbium. 



1. NYMPH-SJA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 114. 



Large aquatic herbs. Root stock creeping. Leaves and flowers 

 floating. Floioers expanded, large, solitary, on long radical scapes. 

 Sepals 4, adnate to the base of the disk. Petals in many series, 

 successively transformed into stamens, all adnate to the disk, JFila- 

 ments petaloid. Anthers small, linear, slits introrse. Ovaries many, 

 in one series, sunk in the fleshy disk, and with it forming a many- 

 celled ovary crowned by connate radiating stigmas ; ovules many. 

 Fruit a spongy berry, ripening under water. Seeds small, buried in 

 pulp. 



Leaves sharply toothed, anthers without 

 appendages 1. N. Lotus.. 



Leaves entire or obtusely toothed, anthers 

 with long appendages . . . . 2. N, stellata. 



1. N. Lotus, Linn. 8p, PI 511 ; Roxh. Fl. Ind. ii, 577 ; Hk. f. Sf T. Fl. 



Ind. 24:1; B Sf G. Bomb.; Fl. 6; F.B. I. i, 114 ; Watt E. D. Vern. Ghota 



hanval. (Indian Lotus.) 



Bootstock short, erect, roundish, tuberous. Leaves 6-12 in. across, on 

 long cylindrical submerged petioles, sharply sinuate-toothed, downy 

 beneath, sagittate when young. Flowers 2-10 in. in diam., white or 

 pink. Sepals oblong, obtuse, 5-10-ribbed, glabrous or pilose externally. 

 Petals oblong. Filaments broadly dilated at the base Anthers without 

 appendages. Fruit Ih in. in diam. ; stigmatic rays with clubbed ap- 

 pendages. Seeds broadly ellipsoid, rough. 



Common throughout the area, flowering during the rainy season. Dis- 

 TRTB. : Warmer parts of India, extending to Africa, Java, and the 

 Philippines ; it also occurs in Hungary in the neighbourhood of hot 

 springs. The tuberous underground stems are eaten and also used 

 medicinally. 



