12 
is remarkable in some other respects. It offers one of the best examples 
which can be adduced of the gradual passage of petals into stamens, and of 
sepals into petals : if attentively examined, the transition will be found so insen- 
sible that many intermediate bodies will be seen to be neither precisely petals 
nor stamens, but both in part. The developement of the disk, which is so 
remarkable in Nelumbiaceae, takes place here in various degrees. In some, as 
in Nuphar, it is merely an hypog\Tious expansion, out of which grow the sta- 
mens and petals ; in others, as Nymphsea, it elevates itself as high as the top 
of the ovary, to the surface of which it is adnate, and as the stamens are car- 
ried up along with it, we have these organs apparently proceeding from the 
surface of the ovary : in the genus Barclaya, the petals are also carried up 
^vith the stamens, on the outside of which they even cohere into a tube, so 
that in this genus we have a singular instance of aji inferior calyx and a supe- 
rior corolla in the same plant. 
Supposing this order to be exogenous and dicotyledonous, a fact about 
which there appears to me to be no doubt, its immediate affinity wUl be with 
Papaveracese, with some genera of which it agrees in the very compound nature 
of the fruit, from the apex of which the sessile stigmas radiate, in the presence 
of narcotic principles and a milky secretion, and in the great breadth of the 
placentae. Nymphaeaceae are also akin to Magnoliaceae, with which they agree 
in the imbricated nature of the petals, sepals, and stamens ; to Nelumbiaceae 
their close resemblance is evident ; with Ranunculaceae they are connected 
through the tribe of Paeonies, wdth which they agree in the dilated state of 
of the disk which, in Paeonia papaveracea and Moutan, frequently rises as high 
as the top of the ovaries, and in the indefinite number of their hypogynous 
stamens ; but in Ranunculaceae the placentae only occupy the edge of each of 
the carpels of which the fruit is made up ; so that in NigeUa, in which the 
carpels cohere in the centre, the seeds are attached to the axis, while in Nym- 
phaeaceae the placentae occupy the whole surface of each side of the individual 
carpels, of which the fruit is composed. But if such are the undoubted imme- 
diate affinities of Nymphaeaceae, it is certain that some strong analogies exist 
between them and Hydrocharaceae, to the vicinity of which they are referred 
by those who believe them to be Monocotyledonous. Taking Nelumbiaceae 
for a transition order, they have some relation to Alismaceae, the only mono- 
cotyledonous order in which there is an indefinite number of carpels in each 
flower, and to Hydrocharaceae, with which they agree in the structure, though 
not the vernation, of their leaves, and their habit. An analogy of a similar 
nature 'wfith this last may be also traced between them and the monopetalous 
sub-order Menyantheae. 
Geography. Floating plants, inhabiting the whole of the northern 
hemisphere, occasionally met with at the southern point of Africa, but gene- 
rally rare in the southern hemisphere, and entirely unknown on the continent 
of South America. ! 
Properties. The whole of this order has the reputation of being anti- 
aphrodisiac, sedative, and narcotic, properties not very clearly made out, but 
generally credited. Their stems are certainly bitter and astringent, for which 
reason they have been prescribed in dysentery. They contain a considerable 
quantity of faecula, and after repeated washings, they are capable of being 
used for food. DC. A. R. The seeds are eagerly sought after in times of 
scarcity, by the wild people in whose countries they grow. They taste like 
poppy seeds, and are used either boiled or raw like Millet. The stems are 
esteemed by the negroes of Senegal, who roast and eat them like Potatoes 
(FI. Senegamb. 1, 17). In India the farinaceous seeds are eaten either in a 
raw state, or after having been roasted in heated sand (Royle , 65). It is 
