NYMPHAEA STELLATA.

Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal, Rhodesia.

Nymphaeaceae. Tribe Nymphaeae.

Nymphaea, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 46.

Nymphaea stellata, Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. ii. p. 1153; Fl. Cap. vol. i. p. 14.

A common water plant in many of our South African rivers and vleis, and it is not surprising that such a handsome species soon found its way to cultivators in Europe. Masson, about the year 1792, appears to have first introduced it into England by forwarding specimens from the Cape to the Royal Gardens at Kew. It was not long before coloured plates appeared in the botanical publications of the day, and the first of these was published in 1801 in the Botanical Magazine and about the same time in Andrews’ Botanist’s Repository. A second figure again appeared in the Botanical Magazine about 18 years later. The species, commonly known as the “Blue Water Lily” (Zulu “i-Ziba”), is easy of cultivation, and is found in most garden ponds in South Africa. Our illustration was made from specimens growing in the aquarium of the Natal Herbarium, Durban.

Description:—An aquatic plant with a submerged rhizome from which the floating leaves and flowers are produced. Rhizome 4-5 cm. in diameter, black and spongy. Leaves about 6 to each rhizome; petiole long or short according to the depth of the water, terete, striate, thickly clothed with transparent hairs; lamina green above, brownish beneath, up to 30 cm. long and 20-26 cm. broad, orbicular or elliptic, rounded at the apex, and with a deep acute triangular notch at the base, with entire or sometimes wavy margins, and prominent veins beneath, glabrous. Peduncles longer than the petioles, raising the flower well above the surface of the water. Sepals 4, green outside, blue within, 4-6 cm. long, 1·5-2 cm. broad, ovate-oblong, acuminate. Petals numerous, about 4 cm. long, 1 cm. broad, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, blue. Torus thick, fleshy. Stamens numerous, in several rows; filaments flattened; the outer longer than the inner, and ½-? the length of the petals; anthers yellow, with a long linear blue appendage at the apex. Carpels many, inserted in the torus; stigma arcuate, obtuse. Fruit a many-seeded berry. Seeds spongy.