BOTANICAL, INDEX. 
23 
apparent attempt at hero-worship — a relic of the almost forgotten past, and a custom 
repulsive to an advanced age of civilization. Happily this idea is not shared in by the 
many students, and no systematic effort is likely to be made to change the present 
j custom. 
It is a well known fact that from our childhood up we become so familiar with the 
1 forms we often see, that both the object and its name never seem strange or new to 
us; but to the great mass of readers the greatest objection often advanced to a scien- 
tific or even a well written popular subject treating of newly discovered or strange 
forms, is the adoption of hard names employed by investigators to designate one 
object from another, and well informed people will often express surprise that com- 
mon names are not oftener employed. But when new plants are introduced — from 
I Africa, for example — and the local, native names are also given, they are found to be 
far less musical and pleasing to our ears than those employed by science. Now, all 
scientific names are only Greek or Latinized forms of what we often are pleased to 
call common ones, rendered so to form a common vocabulary for students in all lan- 
guages, tongues and dialects; for the true man of science knows no national jealousies 
and strifes, but considers all students as members of one great human family in 
search of information for the benefit of all mankind. Consequently the same names 
employed in the English language by science are just as appropriate in the Latin, 
French, German, etc. ; and although they may often seem harsh or obscure, in reality 
they are the only known adequate means of communication to prevent confusion. 
But we would like to ask our readers if they ever thought how many of the com- 
monest names we employ for our children, — especially for our daughters, are derived 
from the different objects of the vegetable kingdom? Probably one-third are thus 
obtained, and certainly there should be no objection to reversing the custom, and 
; applying similar appropriate ones to a genus of plants. 
With the above explanation for a very appropriate custom, we will now say that 
this genus of plants was first dedicated by Linnaeus to Prof. Pontedera, and contains 
the type {Pontederia cordata, Linn.,) of the order, and as a worthy representative of 
this section of the vegetable kingdom, we have chosen it as a proper subject for our 
fifth paper on the so-called Water Lilies. Perhaps we should also say in this connec- 
tion that the term Water Lilies is a very indefinite one, and may appear ill-chosen, 
or meaningless when applied to such forms as the present one, particularly as the 
word seems to stand synonymous with a plant producing a large cup-shaped or turban- 
shaped flower. But we have here adopted the term commonly applied to aquatic 
flowering plants, by people living near them.. 
The order Pontederiacece include four genera, viz : Pontederia , with five species; 
Eichornia, with three species, possibly five; Heteranthera , with three species; and 
■ Schollera, ( Lepanthus ,) with one species; all of which are peculiar to America, except 
the single form, Pontederia vaginalis, of the East Indies. The genus Pontederia, as 
now constituted, contain only those species that have a fruit with 2 barren cells, and 
al-celled, 1-seeded perfect fruit, in contradistinction to Eichornia, which has a 3-celled, 
3-seeded fruit. Sir Joseph Paxton, however, considers both the Pontederia and 
Eichornia as constituting only one genus, and ranges all the species under the genus 
Pontederia. AVe will not dwell longer upon this point, but leave everyone interested 
in the subject to study and form their own conclusions. 
To complete a popular article of the present character, a scientific description must 
also be added, to gain a full knowledge of the subject under consideration ; and as the 
descriptions are a part of the fundamental principles of all our popular as well as 
scientific botanies, it will as a matter of necessity be only a reprint in part from them. 
: From the latest editions of botanical works, we find a scientific description to read : 
GENUS P ON TEDEBIA . Liisn. 
Stout, perennial aquatic or marsh herbs, growing in shallow, still or slow running 
water, with a short, thick, creeping rhizome (root-stock), and producing erect, long 
petiolcd, radicle leaves, largely sheathing at the base, and a 1-leaved stem or scape, 
terminated by an ebracteated, hairy spike or panicle of blue, ephemeral, usually 
sessile flowers, from a 1-leaved green spathe. The leaf-blade is mostly heart or arrow- 
shaped, with prominent arched nerves and parallel veins. The flowers are 2-lipped, 
the upper 3 segments uniting to form the upper lip of 3 lobes, and the 3 lower ones 
more spreading and with more or less separate or lightly cohering claws forming the 
lower lip. The flowers open only for a day, and with the morning sun, but like most 
of the so-called Water Lilies, closing at the approach of evening by rolling up from 
the apex downward as it closes; the 6-ribbed base thickening, turning green, and 
enclosing the fruit. Perinth of 6 divisions, irregularly united below in a corolla-like 
tube. Stamens 6, unequally inserted on the tube or throat of the perinth, opposite 
the 6 perinth segments; the 3 upper ones shorter, low down in the throat, and often 
sessile ; the 3 lower ones with incurved filaments, and inserted near the summit of the 
tube. Fruit, a 3-celled, 3-valved capsule, opening longitudinally, and enveloped by 
