[Plate 65.] 



THE CRIMSON WATER-LILY. 



(nymph.ea rubra.) 



A Stove Aquatic, from the East Indies, belonging to the Natural Order of Water-Lilies. 



Specific Character. 



THE CRIMSON WATEK -LILY. — Leaves roundish, ovate, slightly peltate, toothed, deeply split ab the base, downy on 

 the under side. Flowers crimson. Sepals seven-ribbed. Stigmas fifteen. 



Nymphsea rubra: Roxburgh's Floral Indica,il 576; alias Castalia magnifica ; : R. A. Salisbury, Paradisus Londinensis, 1. 14. 



THIS brilliant aquatic, though an old inhabitant of our gardens, is still a rarity, 

 appearing only in first-class collections. Nor has it been fortunate in the artists 

 who have attempted to fix its likeness on paper; the early figure in the " Botanist's 

 Repository" is particularly unsatisfactory. We have, therefore, gladly availed ourselves 

 of the opportunity of producing a true representation of a fine specimen which flowered at 

 Syon. 



Roxburgh merely says of this plant that it is a native of India, flowering during the 

 rainy season, and by no means so common as the Nymphaa Lotus ; nor do we find other 

 details in the works of Indian writers. 



•It is probable that more species than one may be included in this name, for 

 Roxburgh mentions a nil ill rose-coloured variety with from twenty to twenty-five 

 stamens, and Dr. Wight figures as N. rubra a plant with at least sixty long narrow 

 yellow stamens. Neither of these corresponds with that before us, which we presume 

 to be the common Indian plant; in which we find strongly seven-ribbed sepals, crimson 

 inside, succeeded by broad satiny spreading crimson petals, the central of which are linear, 

 blunt, erect, curved inwards, and gradually passing into the crimson stamens, which they 



