LXXIII.— ANALYTICAF. DRAWINGS OF 
THE WATER-LILY AND BUTTERCUP FAMILIES. 
{Nymphceacece and Ranunculacea.) 
T he Order Ranales is interesting alike for the beauty of many ot its 
members and for its primitive floral structure which has led to its general 
recognition as one at least of the chief starting-points in the evolution of Flowering 
Plants. Not to speak of such beautiful exotics as the Magnolias and the Allspice 
tree {Calycanthus floridus Linn6), our own Water-lilies, Buttercups, Anemones, and 
Columbine are all unequalled in their special charms. The spiral arrangement of 
the parts of the flower and the gradation of petals into stamens indicate the 
primitive character of both Water-lilies and Ranunculace<e ; while not only the texture 
of the petals of the former but also various internal features in the herbaceous stems 
of many members of the Order, and some details as to their cotyledons and other 
characters of their embryos, have suggested affinity with Monocotyledons. Alike 
in Magnoliaccie and Nymphaaceie, moreover, there are cases of a ternary symmetry in 
the flower which point in the same direction. 
Fifteen Families are included under the Order Ranales^ the common characters 
of which appear somewhat vague and mostly negative. Though often spiral, i.e. 
acyclic, polysymmetric, and differentiated into calyx and corolla (Jieterochlamydeous\ 
the perianth may be whorled {cyclic), monosymmetric, or homochlamydeous : the 
stamens are usually numerous and hypogynous ; and the carpels, though varying 
indefinitely in number, are usually, but not always, free from one another. Of the 
fifteen Families, three have British representatives — the Nymph^eaccte, the Cerato- 
phyllace^e, and the Ranunculaccte. The Ceratophyllacea are a Family consisting of a 
single genus Ceratophyllum, with only two or three species, but of cosmopolitan 
distribution. They are known from their divided, translucent, tough submerged 
leaves as Hornworts, and are among the very few Flowering Plants which produce 
pollen adapted for fertilisation under water. They are not represented here. 
The Nymphceacece, another cosmopolitan Family of aquatic plants, comprises 
some sixty species in eight genera, of which last Nymphcea and Nuphar are the only 
two natives in Europe, with three species each. In Britain we have but one species 
of Nymphcea and two of Nuphar. The whole Family is characterised by its large, 
solitary, and generally floating, blossoms. 
The White Water-lily {Nymphcea alba Linne), represented by the first line or 
figures on our Plate, has the largest individual flowers of any British plant. Figs, i, 
2, and 3 represent a series of stamens from the outer part of the flower inwards, 
gradually narrowing so as to become less petal-like. Fig. 4 is the gynaeceum, on 
the disk enclosing the sides of which the petals and stamens are inserted. Fig. 5 
shows it in longitudinal, and Fig. 6, in transverse, section. The ovules are scattered 
over the whole inner surface of the carpels. 
