NYMPHAEA 
99 
dulous, perisperm copious, endosperm scanty. Fruit with as many loculi as there are stigmas, covered 
on the outside with the fallen scars of the petals and stamens, ripening below the surface of the 
water, mucilaginous, dehiscing irregularly. Seeds co in each loculus, subglobose, with an aril. 
The British species belongs to the section Cast alia DC. Syst. Nat. ii, 55 (1821), characterised by cordate, glabrous, 
entire laminae , by white perianth-segments , and by anthers whose apex is not produced. 
About 78 species ; cosmopolitan. 
British species of Nymphaea 
1. N. alba (see below). Floating laminae large (often 20 — 25 cm. long), veins of the basal 
lobes not converging if produced. Flowers about 10 — 14 cm. in diameter. Fruit subglobose, about 
2 ‘o to 2 ’5 cm. in diameter, staminal scars all over it. 
2. N. occidentalis (see below). Floating lamina about 9 — 12 cm. broad and 11 — 13 long, 
veins of the lobes converging if produced. Flowers about 7 cm. in diameter. Fruit depressed- 
subglobose (5 : 7), staminal scars absent towards the top. 
I. NYMPHAEA ALBA. White Water-lily. Plate 95 
N. alba Gerard Herball 672 (1597); Ray Syn. ed. 3, 368 (1724). 
Nymphaea alba L. Sp. PI. 510 (1753); Smith Eng. Bot. no. 160 (1793); FI. Brit. 570 (1800); Syme 
Eng. Bot. i, 76 (1863) excl. var. minor ; Rouy et Foucaud FI. France i, 15 1 (1893) partim ; Castalia speciosa 
Salisbury op. cit. 72 (1806); C. alba Wood in Rees’ Cyclop, vi (1806). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 160; Hooker in Curtis’s FI. Lond. ed. 2, t. 140; FI. Dan. t. 602; Svensk 
Bot. t. 92; Reichenbach Icon, vii, 67, fig. 117. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 95. (a) Leaf, (b, c) Flowers, (d, e) Fruits. (/) Stigmatic disc, (g) Transverse 
section of fruit. ( h , i) Longitudinal sections of fruit, e, h, i from Cambridgeshire (C. E. M.). Other plant from 
Huntingdonshire (J. H. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 2006; v. Hayek, 963, as Castalia alba\ Reichenbach, 1608; Herb. FI. Ingric. viii, 31. 
Perennial. Rhizome stout, horizontal. Petioles very long. Submerged leaves petioled, the 
laminae orbicular, smaller than the floating leaves. Floating leaves long-petioled, large (often 20 — 
25 cm. long), suborbicular, deeply cordate at the base, coriaceous. Flowers 10 — 14 cm. in diameter, 
the largest in the British flora; June to September. Perianth-segments white, spreading, sepals and 
petals not well defined, gradually passing into stamens, outer ones greenish brown on the outside. 
Fruit subglobose, slimy, about 2 # o — 2^5 cm. in diameter. 
Common in rivers, broads, meres, ponds, and ditches in the fens of eastern England where it 
is indigenous; recorded throughout the British Islands, but often introduced; commoner in still 
waters than Nuphar lutea and preferring waters with a high mineral-content. 
Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia, southern 
Europe ; northern Africa ; south-western Asia. 
2. NYMPHAEA OCCIDENTALIS. Small White Water-lily. Plate 96 
N. alba minor Gerard Herball 672 ( 1 597 )- 
Nymphaea occidentalis nobis; N. alba var. minor [DC. Syst. Veg. ii, 56 (1821)?; Dumortier FI. 
Belg. 131 (1827) nomen;] Syme Eng. Bot. i, 76 (1863); Castalia Candida Druce in New Phytol. x, 306 ( 191 1 ) 
non aliorum ; C. alba var. Candida Druce op. cit. 324 ( 191 1) non aliorum ; N. alba var. occidentalis Ostenfeld in 
New Phyt. xi, 116, fig. B (1912). 
leones : — Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 96. (a, b) Leaves seen from above. ( c ) Leaf seen from below. 
{d) Flower, (e) Stamens. (/) Mature fruit, (g) Immature fruit, (k, i ) Longitudinal section of mature and 
immature fruits, c from Perthshire (C. E. M.). Other plant from Eastern Inverness-shire (R. S. A.). 
Exsiccata : — Herb. Marshall, 2508, 3462. 
Closely allied to N. alba (and also to the non- British species N. Candida), but differing in the 
following characters: — Plant smaller. Laminae orbicular, 9 — 12 cm. broad and 11 — 13 long, with the 
veins of the lobes converging if produced. Receptacle subangular at the point of insertion. Flowers 
up to about 7 cm. in diameter; June to September. Pollen-grains papillose. Stigmatic rays yellow. 
Fruit depressed-subglobose (5:7), without staminal scars towards the top. Seeds about 3*0 — 3 '5 
mm. in diameter. 
When the fruit is beginning to ripen, it is still small and angled by the scars of the fallen petals. When quite ripe and 
ready to burst, the fruit is inflated and hence larger ; and the pericarp is so stretched that the scars of the petals cease to 
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