IOO 
NYMPHAEA 
make angles on the rotund fruit. Eventually the fruits burst. All these happenings take place under water; and we have 
to thank Mr Hunnybun for drawing our attention to them. The circumstances explain the varied descriptions and illus- 
trations of fruits of Nymphaea. 
Although this plant has long been known to British botanists, it was Ostenfeld (loc. cit.) who first made clear its rela- 
tionships with N. alba and the non-British N Candida. We were present on the occasion when Ostenfeld saw the present 
plant in Perthshire. At the moment, he suggested it might possibly be N. Candida ; but he cautiously added that he would 
take material with him back to Copenhagen, and examine it critically at his leisure. In the meantime, Druce recorded the 
plant as N. catidida. Ostenfeld’s examination of his Perthshire specimens convinced him it was not N Candida-, and he 
named it N. alba var. occidentalis. The plant is certainly N. alba var. minor of Syme, and perhaps that of de Candolle ; 
but Ostenfeld, being uncertain of the latter point, chose to give it a new name. Ostenfeld informs us (in lift.) that he 
thinks there are probably several small water-lilies in Europe. This may well be the case ; but all the west-European 
material we have seen can be fairly ascribed to our species N. occidentalis. 
In still or slowly moving waters with a low mineral-content, especially in heathy and moorland 
districts ; very rare in England and only recorded for Hampshire ; locally abundant in Wales, 
Scotland (northwards to Zetland), and western Ireland; ascending to 425 m. in Perthshire. 
Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, Sicily. It is possible 
that in some of these countries there is confusion between N. occidentalis (which appears to be a 
west-European species) and N. Candida (which is on the whole an east-European species). 
Family 2. CERATOPHYLLACEAE 
Ceratophyllaceae Asa Gray in Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York iv, 41 (1848); Engler Pflanzenfam. iii, 
pt. 2, 10(1891); Ceratophylleae S. F. Gray Nat. Arr. ii, 395 et 554(1821); Schleiden in Linnaea xi, 513(1837). 
Perennial, aquatic herbs. Leaves whorled. Inflorescence solitary, axillary, sessile or nearly so. 
Flowers acyclic, diclinous, small. Receptacle convex or flat. Perianth monochlamydeous, hypogynous, 
sepaloid, with about 6 — 12 persistent segments. Stamens 5 — 25. Ovary of 1 carpel, hypogynous. 
Ovule 1, orthotropous, pendulous. Fruit an achene. Seed with little endosperm. Integument 1, 
membranous. Radicle absent or very short. Cotyledons 2, bifid, thick, oval. Plumule large, with 
several nodes and leaves. 
Only genus : — Ceratophyllum. 
Genus 1. Ceratophyllum 
Ceratophyllum L. [Gen. PI. 290 (1737);] sp. PI. 992 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 428 (1754); Gaertner 
Fruct. i, 212, t. 44(1788); Engler in Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. 2, 12(1891). [Dichatophyllon Dillenius App. Cat. Giss. 
91 (1719)-] 
Perennial, aquatic, submerged, rootless herbs ; land-forms unknown. Stem cylindrical, fragile, 
branched, decaying behind as the branches grow at the apex. Leaves exstipulate, whorled, com- 
pound, segments linear to subulate and usually forked, the older ones thickened, 6 — 12 in a whorl. 
Winter-buds not formed, the whole plant sinking to the bottom of the water in autumn and rising 
again in spring. Perianth almost to quite polyphyllous. Staminate flowers larger than the pistillate 
ones, with about 1 2 segments ; filaments very short, connective prolonged above the anther and 
usually 2-fid or 3-fid ; anthers extrorse, broadly elliptical, erect, stout, as long as or rather longer 
than the perianth, dehiscing by a lateral pore, rising to the surface before dehiscence ; pollen-grains 
flattened on one side. Pistillate flowers much smaller than the staminate ones ; perianth- segments 
fewer than in the staminate flowers, polyphyllous ; ovary free from the rest of the flower ; stigmas 
1 — 3, subfalcate ; if 1, lateral; ovary sessile. Achene black or nearly so. 
There has been much difference of opinion regarding the affinities of Ceratophyllum. Many botanists (e.g., Linnaeus, 
Jussieu, S. F. Gray, and de Candolle) placed the genus near Myriophyllum , being impressed by the resemblance in habit. 
Bentham and Hooker regarded the genus as anomalous. Asa Gray (loc. cit.) cites Brongniart (cf. Ann. Sci. Nat. xii (1827)) 
as relating the genus to the Nymphaeaceae, near which Ceratophyllum is placed by Warming (Handb. Syst. Bot., English 
translation by Potter, 388 (1895)); and this view received great support from Strasburger (in Jahr. Wiss. Bot. xxxvii, 477 — 
526 (1902)). The genus is now usually placed in the Ranunculales, near Nymphaeaceae-, and this seems to be its correct 
position, judging by its monochlamydeous perianth with numerous segments, its stamens unfixed in number but usually rather 
numerous, its solitary ovule free from the other parts of the flower, as well as its curious embryo. Ceratophyllum is probably 
an ancient genus, long ago specialised in relation to its completely aquatic mode of life, and now decadent. 
Asa Gray (loc. cit.) attributes rather bizarre views to L. C. Richard and to de Jussieu. Richard is stated to have re- 
ferred Ceratophyllum to the Coniferae ; but this is an exaggeration (see Richard Anal. Fruit 93 (1808)). All that Richard 
actually did was to point out that he [erroneously] considered the embryo of Ceratophyllum to have four cotyledons, and 
adds : — “ L’ordre des Coniferes est celui dans lequel on trouve le plus d’exemples de l’Embryon polycotyledone.” Similarly 
