466 
TRANS. OP THE ACAD. OP SCIENCE. 
Berlandier 1571 and 2556 in part) have few (3-8) large glo¬ 
bose 20-50-flowered heads. Capsule rarely exceeding the 
calyx, and then approaching var. /?. Seeds variable within 
the limits of the species, slender, or sometimes thick. Hb. 
n. 56 is a taller and 57 a slenderer form with fewer flowered 
heads, from Michigan, Bigelow; 58 and 59 are what Meyer 
named J. paradoxus, the former a smaller-flowered form from 
S. Carolina, Bavenel, the latter a larger-flowered one from 
.Delaware, Commons . 
Var. /?. debilis is distinguished by the mostly very weak 
stem, feet high, sometimes reclining, and even decum¬ 
bent and rooting; panicle loose-flowered, 3-6 inches long; 
flowers 1.2-1.5 lines long; capsule very pale, more or less 
protruding beyond the calyx; seeds the smallest in the spe¬ 
cies. A rather small but rigid form comes from South Caroli¬ 
na, Hb. n. 60, Bavenel, and a similar autumnal one, in which 
the heads by renewed vegetation of their axis degenerate into 
spikes, has been sent by the same botanist, ib. 61. 
Var. y . diffusissimus, stouter, 2-2^ feet high, with a panicle 
8 or 9 inches long and fully as wide; fruit-heads 5 lines in 
diameter; flowers 1J lines, or, with the straw-colored radiating 
capsules, fully 2^ lines long; seeds as in last. 
Var. d. robustus is a very different looking plant, which in 
the hot Helumbium swamps of the Mississippi bottoms grows 
even 4 feet high, with a stem 3 lines in diameter and leaves 
m proportion, which, however, do not reach beyond the base 
of the inflorescence; panicle 6-10 inches long and a little less 
across, with fruit-heads only 2 lines in diameter; flowers 
smaller than in the other forms, 1.1-1.2 lines long, and cap¬ 
sules more obtuse than in the others, with a short mucro * 
seeds among the larger ones.—The specimens distributed in 
Hb. n. 62 are, owing to the very dry season, not so well de¬ 
veloped as the plant is often seen, nor did the fruit mature at 
all m that or the following year. It is an interesting fact ob¬ 
served by me for many years, that, if not in the whole Mis¬ 
sissippi Yalley, at least in this neighborhood, our ponds and 
lakes become lower every year, their rich vegetation is be¬ 
coming extinct, and many have dried up altogether. Our 
beautiful Nelumbium, which twenty and ten years ago was 
an ornament to many sheets of water on hill as well as low¬ 
land m this vicinity, hiding them under their broad velvety 
leaves, and from the end of June to the middle of August dot¬ 
ting them with their splendid cream-white flowers, is fast dis¬ 
appearing^ consequence of the retrocession of those waters, 
and with it its companions the Sagittarim, the Spargania, the 
J unci, the Scirpi, the Zizania, and many of their minor attend- 
ants. -But what botany and beauty loses, cultivation gains, 
and, above all, the health of the neighborhood. 
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