Comprises only the following genus.

1. Nelumbo [Tourn.] Adans. Fam. Pl. 2: 76. 1763

Large aquatic herbs, with thick rootstocks, long-petioled concave emersed or floating leaves, and small and scale like submerged ones borne sessile on the rootstock. Flowers large, showy, yellow, pink or white. Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate. Petals and stamens 00, inserted on the calyx, caducous. Filaments more or less petaloid; anthers introrse. Carpels oo, distinct, contained in pits in the large convex receptacle. Style short; ovules I or 2, pendulous or anatropous; endosperm none; cotyledons thick, fleshy. Nuts globose or oblong. [Ceylon name for N. Nelumbo.]

A genus of 2 or 3 species, one North American, one Jamaican, the other Asiatic and Australasian, known as Sacred Bean or Water-bean. Type species: Nymphaea Nelumbo L.

Flowers pale yellow; plant native.

1.

N. lutea.

Flowers pink or white; plant introduced.

2.

N. Nelumbo.

1. Nelumbo Lùtea (Willd.) Pers. American Nelumbo Or Lotus

Fig. 1837

Nelumbium luteum Willd. Sp. Pl. 2: 1259. 1799. Nelumbo lutea Pers. Syn. 1: 92. 1805.

Rootstock nearly horizontal, tuberiferous. Emersed leaves 1°-2° broad, nearly orbicular but often somewhat constricted in the middle, centrally peltate, raised high out of water or floating, prominently ribbed, glabrous above, more or less pubescent and lepidote beneath, the lower surface marked with an oblong, transverse area; petioles and peduncles thick, 3°-7° long, with several large air-canals; flowers pale yellow, 4'-10' broad; petals concave, obovate, obtuse; anthers appendaged; fruit obconic or somewhat hemispheric, 3'-4' long; seeds nearly globular, 6" in diameter.

In rivers and lakes, locally distributed from Massachusetts to Minnesota, Nebraska and Louisiana. Cuba. N. jamaicensis, of Jamaica, closely resembles this species, but may be specifically distinct. Tubers and seeds farinaceous, edible. Great yellow water-lily. Water-chinkapin. Wankapin or yankapin. Duck-acorn. Rattle- or water-nut. July-Aug.

1 Nelumbo L Tea Willd Pers American Nelumbo Or Lot 1791 Nelumbo L Tea Willd Pers American Nelumbo Or Lot 180

2. Nelumbo Nelùmbo (L.) Karst. Sacred Bean. Indian Lotus

Fig. 1838

Nymphaea Nelumbo L. Sp. Pl. 511. 1753. Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. Fruct. & Sem. 1: 73.

pl. 19. 1788. Nelumbium speciosum Willd. Sp. Pl. 2: 1258.

I799. N. Nelumbo Karst. Deutsch. Fl. 553. 1880-83.

Leaves 2°-3° in diameter, high exserted above the water or some of them floating, thin, concave, glaucous; petioles and peduncles 3°-6° long, glabrous or with scattered minute prickles; flowers 4'-10' broad, pink or sometimes white; petals oblong or elliptic, obtuse; fruit obconic, 4-5' long, 3'-4' in diameter; seeds oblong or ovoid.

Naturalized in ponds about Bordentown, N. J., where it was introduced by Mr. E. D. Sturtevant. Native of India, Persia, China, Japan and Australia. A superb plant, often cultivated. July-Aug.