‘ NYMPHiEA ALBA-WHITE WATER-LILY. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, N Y M P H JE A C E M . — THE WATER-LILY TRIBE. 
Leaves heart-shaped, entire ; petals oblong ; rays of the stigma sixteen, recurved. — Root tuberous, hori- 
zontal : leaves floating, nearly circular, heart-shaped, smooth : stalks of the leaves and flowers cylindrical : 
flowers about four inches in diameter, floating when expanded : calyx-leaves white above ; petals white. 
This, in respect to beauty, is the queen of British flowers. Its large tuberous roots are collected by the 
Hebridians, who from a decoction of them, mixed with copperas, obtain a black colour for dying wool and 
yarn. Perennial : flowers in July : grows in pools, lakes, and slow rivers. 
The Nymphceacece are astringent, bitter, and innocuous plants. They are also reputed to possess sedative 
powers ; their rhizomata contain much farinaceous matter ; and, when the bitter principle has been re- 
moved by repeated washings, their creeping stems are esculent, such especially as those of N. eclulis and 
rubra. The seeds of N. rubra and N. Lotos are also eatable. The stems of N. odorata contain a large pro- 
portion of tannin and gallic acid, and will strike a deep black with the salts of iron : and those of N. alba 
are also used to dye a dark chesnut brown ; both have been occasionally employed medicinally as astrin- 
gents, but their use is almost obsolete, being seldom resorted to as styptics, and only occasionally chewed 
by singers to relieve relaxation of the uvula and soft palate, give firmness to the vocal organs, and clear the 
voice. Swine will feed upon the water lilies, both N. alba and Nuphar lutea ; and goats will also eat them ; 
but they are not fed upon by kine, horses, or sheep. The root-stakes of the latter, which is the common 
yellow water-lily, are said to be destructive to beetles and cock-roaches, when bruised and infused in milk ; 
they are also sometimes burned, to get rid of crickets, to which the smoke is said to be peculiarly ob- 
noxious. 
The Nymphaacea! are highly ornamental aquatics, and the flowers of some are very fragrant. Others 
are scentless ; and those of Nuphar lutea have an alcoholic odour resembling brandy. They are also phy- 
siologically interesting, from the varied elongations of their peduncles to suit the varied depths of the waters 
in which they grow, and their almost sensitive irritability, which causes their daily elevation above the sur- 
face of the water, and the expansion of their petals during the sunshine, and the nocturnal collapse of the 
flowers, with their drooping heads, which in some instances lie down on the shield-like leaves, and in others 
retire below the surface of the water during the night, but again emerge on the coming of day. 
In some small gardens, says Miller, I have seen these plants cultivated in troughs of water, where they 
have flourished very well, and have annually produced great quantities of flowers ; but as the expence of 
these troughs is pretty great, (their insides requiring to be lined with lead, to preserve them,) there are few 
people who care to be at that charge. 
Towards the end of this month, says Dr. Aikin, of September, the chimney or common swallow en- 
tirely disappears. There are various opinions concerning the manner in which these birds dispose of them- 
selves during the winter ; some imagining that they all fly away to distant southern regions, where insect- 
food is at all times to be met with ; others, that they retire to holes and caverns, or even sink to the 
bottom of ponds and rivers, where they pass the. winter months in a torpid and apparently lifeless state. 
That many of them migrate to other countries, seems sufficiently proved. But some, probably, always stay 
behind, which are the younger broods, or smaller kinds, that are incapable of so long a flight. For some 
time before their departure, they begin to collect in flocks, settling on trees, basking on the roofs of buildings, 
or gathering round towers and steeples, from whence they take short excursions, as if to try their powers of 
flight. 
When Autumn scatters his departing gleams, 
Warn’d of approaching Winter, gathered, play 
The swallow-people ; and toss’d wide around, 
O’er the calm sky, in convolution swift, 
The feathered eddy floats ; rejoicing once, 
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire ; 
In clusters clung, beneath the mould’ring hank, 
And where, unpierc’d by frost, the cavern sweats. 
Or rather into warmer climes convey’d, 
With other kindred birds of season, there 
They twitter chearful, till the vernal months 
Invite them welcome hack : for, thronging, now 
Innumerous wings are in commotion all. 
Thomson. 
Not only the swallow tribe, but many other small birds which feed on insects, disappear on the ap- 
proach of cold weather, when the insects themselves are no longer to be met with. 
