Untitled - Seerosenforum

Historical. 25the genus is" easily recognized " by the broad sub-rotund floating leaves." Nenufar " is given as a generic synonym. Four species are named :1. " Nymphaea alba, major C. B. Pin.," our N. alba.2."Nymphaea Americana, foliis circinatis, maximis, acute crenatis,subtus purjmreis, florealboPlum."3. "Nymphaea Americana, foliis circinatis, minoribus, obtuse crenatis,subtus viridibus, flore albo Plum."4. " Nymphaea lutea, major? our Nuphar luteum.In vol. 2, p. 137-8, the flowers, petals, ovary, fruit and seed of Nymphaeaalba and Nuphar are figured,each. We are not prepared to settle the identitywith also a cross-section of the fruit ofof Plumier's Americanspecies ; it seems likely that No. 2may be referred to N. ampla DC, andNo. 3 to N rudgeana Mey.;Caspary so placed them (1878).We cannotexplain the absence of N. lotus from the list, unless it was meant to beincluded under the species N alba major, as classed by C. Bauhin, who isquoted as authority for this name.Finally Ludwig's (1737) arrangement of the genera may be mentioned.He separated Nymphaea from Nelumbo, as did Tournefort, and describedthe former genus as having five sepals and many small petals this is;doubtless our genus Nuphar. He made an additional genus " Leuconymphaea" which has many petaloid stamens, and covers our present genusNymphaea, as was recognized by Kuntze (1891) and MacMillan (1892).The early plant anatomists seem to have neglected Nymphaeaentirely. Grew and Malpighi make no mention of the genus. Vaillantrefers to the "Grandin his essay on the structure of flowers (17 17),Nenufar-blanc " as illustrating the condition where the stamens arisefrom the sides (reins) of the ovary. Older writers, as we have noted,referred occasionally to the "spongy" rhizomes and the "porous" petiolesand peduncles. The Linnaean and post-Linnsean literature will be citedthroughout the course of the present paper.