THE WATER VILLARSIA— continued. 
genus with the Buckbean as Menyanthes nymphoides , and in following this 
nomenclature Smith uses the English names Fringed Buckbean and Fringed Water-lily. 
This plant, however, and several exotic allied forms differ from the Buckbean in 
that their capsules are indehiscent or burst irregularly, instead of opening in two 
valves, and they are thus entitled to rank as a distinct genus. For this S. P. Gmelin, 
in 1769, proposed the name- Limnanthemum, from \i pvrj, limne, a pool or marsh, 
and avGepov, anthemon , a flower, from which the inappropriate English name 
Marsh-flower , for a plant which floats on open water, has been coined. Wiggers, in 
1780, called it W aldschmidia ; and, in 1803, Ventenat gave it the name Villarsia 
nymphoides , in honour of Dominique Villars, author of a Flora of Dauphin^ — a 
name which remained in general use for a century. The other species of Villarsia 
are, however, Australian and South African, and have the two-valved capsule as in 
Menyanthes. Tournefort’s genus Nymphoides was, however, adopted by the brilliant 
but unprincipled Sir John Hill in his “British Herbal” of 1756, in which he uses 
the name Fringed Water Lilly ; says that the plant is “ not uncommon in shallow 
waters ” and is abundant about Brentford ; and asserts that in its qualities it is 
nearer to the Water-lilies than to the Buckbean. 
The floating leaves spring from the flower-bearing axis a little below the 
surface of the water, which is, as Goebel points out, a decided physiological advance 
upon the arrangement in the Water-lilies, in which all food-material manufactured 
by the leaf has to travel down to the rhizome in the mud at the bottom, only to 
return by the peduncle to the surface, if required for the nourishment of the flower 
or fruit. The leaves, like those of Water-lilies, are usually coloured with anthocyan 
on their under surfaces and in spots on the upper surface, an adaptation probably, as 
we have seen, for the conversion of light into heat ; and the under surfaces are also 
studded with glands. 
The bright buttercup-yellow flowers are in sessile umbels^and one at a time the 
buds rise above w r ater, opening as they do so. The five lobes of the calyx take an 
ascending direction and the corolla is funnel-shaped, expanding to an inch or more 
in diameter, its segments having an irregularly cut margin, w'hile the tube is closed 
by fringed scales. The honey thus concealed is secreted by five purplish glands 
between the bases of the stamens, and the flower is dimorphically heterogonous, the 
long style being half as long again as the short one. After fertilisation the peduncle 
bends so as to withdraw the ovary beneath the water until the fruit is ripe. 
Where it occurs, this beautiful aquatic covers the water with its heart-shaped 
leaves and golden blossoms. It grew formerly at Chelsea, Richmond, and Kingston, 
and a few years ago covered the ponds in Richmond Park. The name Floating 
Heart has been recently suggested for it by florists, who recommend it for planting 
where it can be kept within bounds. 
