BOTAXICAIi INDEX 
07 
in length ; the lower part rots away as the plant 
extends upward. Each year a new circle of leaves 
starts out above the old ones, the old ones dropping 
away, leaving the scars on the rhizoma; so, also, a 
new set of roots starts just beneath the new leaves, 
the old ones dying away like the leaves. This 
makes the rhizoma a scarred, straight, under- 
ground stem, apparently useless.” (See cut, p. 94.) 
“ In the larger plants it is a foot in length and six 
or eight inches in circumference. After it has 
done its work of supplying the plant with leaves 
and roots, this seemingly worthless appendage 
performs new duties in order to perpetuate its 
race. It sends out long white runners, often a 
yard in length, and on the end of each a little 
plant grows; as soon as this plant is well started, 
the runner continues and throws out another 
plant, the same as the strawberry, only this is on 
a much grander scale. Sometimes as many as four 
runners are attached to one rhizoma, and three or 
four small plants strung along each runner. As soon as the new plants become well 
established, the runner decays, and the little ones are now able to stand by them- 
selves, and each has an independent existence, repeating the history of its parent. 
But this is not the only way that this lily is perpetuated : it also forms small bulbs 
or bulblets, which drop into the soft mud and take root. This work is all going on 
in the Spring, before the plant blossoms. It does not bloom until about the first of 
May. The flower is like the w^hite pond-lily in form, but the inner surface of the 
petals is plain yellow, while the outer surface — as we often see in the white lily — is 
streaked with pink. The upper surface of the new leaves is beautifully variegated 
with dark purple and light and dark shades of green, and sometimes yellow; the 
under surface is a deep purplish-red. It grows in water from one to five feet in depth.” 
In a note from Prof. Sargent, published with the above article, he says: “The 
authority for the name of JSJympheea Jlava rests on the figure of the white American 
swan, in Audubon’s “ Birds of America,” in which there is a very good representa- 
tion of your plant. Under it, it says, ‘ Nymphasa Jlava, Lutren.’ There is no descrip- 
tion of the flower or any character given, so that N. Jlava has never been published 
yet. It will, however, be proper to preserve Lutren’s name, and he should always 
stand as authority for the species, whoever may draw 'up and print the technical 
description. You know, 1 dare say, that Lutren was a young German who, years 
ago, botanized in Florida, and was killed there by the Indians. He probably made 
notes of his discoveries, but, so far as I know, these have never been published.” 
Through the courtesy of Mrs. Treat and Prof. A. H. Curtiss, we have some fine 
specimens growing in our aquarium, and have had the opportunity of studying them 
under cultivation ; and right here we would say, they have proved one of the best, if 
not the best, aquarium plant of anything we have yet seen, and would recommend 
them as a specially valuable aquarium plant. The leaves are smaller than those of 
N. odorata — being about 5 or 6 inches broad by 64 to 8 inches long — cordate, with 
numerous small, sharp angles (repand) in the margin. The flower is very similar to 
N. odorata, except the petals are much narrower, which gives the flower more of a 
delicate appearance, and with a delicate perfume of the Jasmine or Mirabilis. 
NYMPH^EA ODORATA. Aiton. 
This is our common American Water-Lily, and is familiar to all. It has large, 
orbicular, floating leaves, often 6 inches in diameter, attached to the stem at near the 
; center, and cleft from the base to tlie insertion of the stem. The flowers are white, 
I often shaded more or less with pink, very fragrant, opening with the sun in the 
morning but closing again about 3 P. M. ; about 54 inches in diameter, more or less 
double, or petals arranged in fours, in many rows, imbricated so as to cover the whole 
i of the ovary. But of all strange flowers, the Nymphaeas are the most interesting to 
botanists, from the fact of its showing the gradual and perfect gradation of forms 
from stamens to pistils and thence to sepals. Fig. 59 will illustrate the idea better 
than words can do it, so we will study the picture. We here give a representation 
of a flower, with half the petals removed to give a sectional view of its structure. 
Around the ovary (seed pod) are the perfect stamens, tipped with the yellow anther 
which gives color to the center of the flower; next are seen broad petal or leaf-like 
stamens, with the points tipped with a semblance of an anther; while the last of the 
series is the sepal, green or pink outside but white and petal-like inside. The scars 
on the ovary show the point of attachment of the petals. 
