2 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



pink and has the distinction of a hooked anther appendage. 

 The range of this plant in America is more extensive than is 

 commonly supposed. It has been found as far south as eastern 

 Florida and Louisiana and as far north as the region of the 

 Great Lakes. It has been reported native as far west as Minne- 

 sota, Iowa and Missouri and it is abundant at the present time 

 in the swamps along the Illinois river and along the Mississippi 

 river between Missouri and Illinois. It is also said to^ be abund- 

 ant in the West Indies. Its natural habitat is about the smaller 

 lakes and stagnant pools or bayous. 



The more common name of chinquapin or water-chinqua- 

 pin is evidently of aboriginal origin and serves to distinguish 

 it from the chinquapin among the oaks and chestnuts. It is 

 said that the Osage and other Indian tribes used the seeds as 

 well as the tubers of Neluinhiuin for food and that they planted 

 the seeds, hence the name; but their plantings must not have 

 been A^ery extensive or successful or the plant would be more 

 generally distributed than it is at present. \Mien once estab- 

 lished Nehnnhiuni holds its place and spreads more successfully 

 by means of its rhizomes and tubers. 



The flower, the largest in America, with the single excep- 

 tion of that of Magnolia gmndiflora, grows singly upon a 

 flower-stalk which raises it some distance above the water. 

 This is in strong contrast to the water-lilies, the Nyniphaea^ 

 which float upon the surface at the end of a long pliant stem in 

 some species or rise only a few inches above the surface in 

 others. The flower, resembling a ''semi-double tulip" in form, 

 opens in the morning and closes in the afternoon for three or 

 four successive da3^s, unless pollinated. The rich creamy yellow 

 of the toms and stamens added to the milk-white or primrose 

 of the petals, its large size, often reaching eight or ten inches 

 in diameter, and its delicate pine-apple odor make it, in many 

 respects, ''the noblest flower that dedicates its beauty to the 

 sun." The center of the flower is a seed-pod or torus, two or 



