Morning journal and courier., 1890-02-26
A TALK UPON wATER LILIRs.

An Interesting Lecture Delivered East
 Evening at North sAemeld Hall.
 In spite of the thick London fog that pre- vaded everywhere last evening, good sized audience was present at Professor Eaton's lecture on water lilies in North Sheffield hall. For additional olearness the professor had arranged series of charts representing different species to which he made frequent reference. His remarks were as follows:
 By the term water lilies is understood all plants of the natural order called by botanists Nymph@aceae. This order, as defined by the most recent authorities, consists of eight genera and about thirty.fve or forty different species. The type or pattern of the order is the white water lily of Europe, Nymphsa alba, plant which differs from our own native pond lily by having nearly scentless flowers and in some less conspicuous characters observed by botanists.
 All water lilies have stem which creeps along in the mud or at the bottom of the water and from which leaves and blossoms rise to the top of the water. or even project above it.
 In most of the plants the leaves are large and the flowers showy, but there are two or which have smaller leaves and greatly re- duced flowers.
 The Nymphaea is represented with us by the common pond lily which grows go cem- monly in shallow ponds and along the mar gins of slow moving streams. It is found from Canada to Florida along the eastern side of the continent.
 The permanent portion of the plant is a root stock L to 1 as thick as one's wrist and sometimes two or three feet long. This root stock creeps along in the mud into which it sends out long white flesy roots, and from which it sends it's leaves and blossoms up to the surface of the water. The leaves are from four to ten inches broad, nearly round in shape, but having a narrow cut at the inner the leaf-stalk. The upper surface is smooth and SO repellant of water that drops stand upon it without touohinr 1t. This is the same bslieveof all water lilies. The leaf shows plainly on its under surface the radiat- l ing veins and the netted veinlets. While are rolled in from side to side and uncurl slowly after they have reached the surface. The leaf stalk contains four long tube-like hollows filled with air, the object being apparently to float the leaves. Tbe damer stems are very similar to the leaf stalks. In the spring soon after the
 first leaves are expanded flower buds may be found forming in the sxils of the leaves. These buds gradually swell and their stems elongate until the tips of the buds appear just above the surface of the water. In a day or two when the sun strikes the pond these buds open and one more white star shines from the pool. Late in the day the flower closes, only to open more widely with the morrow's light. A day or two more and the blossom closes for the last time; the flower stem coils spirally and draws the faded blossom down out of sight and the | pod slowly grows larger and ripens it's many l seeds, while the petals as slowly decay and | perish. The flower is usually about eleven inches wide; it has four green-calyx leaves l and from twenty to thirty white petals. The | inner petals are narrower and some of them have rudimentary anther-cells at the top. | Next to these stand the numerous yellow stamens, the outermost ones very like the l innermost petals, so much like them that the organs of one set (petals) shade gradually into those of the other (stamens). This transition | is made much of by botonists in support of
 the doctrine that all tho parts of a blossom are transformed leaves.
 The center of the flower is occupied by a roundish, many -colored capsule or pod marked on the top with numerous radisting lines. The ripened capsule sis oas large as a
 small crab apple and contains very many
 roundish seeds.
 Our water-lily has two other varieties be-
 sides that which bears the large white flow CTS. There is one variety which has smaller
 flowers of distinct piniish color, especially on the outside and edgss of the petals; and
 then there Is the great rose.colored form
 which is found near Sandwich on Cape Cod. There are few other species of Mymph@a
 found in the United States of which mention l was made.
 think the four species (Nymphsea aderata,
 reniformis elegans and Aava) are the only kinds found within the United States; but
 there are others in the West Indies, South
 America, Europe, Asia, Africa and even in
 Australia and ,Madagascar, perhaps twenty
 or twenty-five different kinds in all, some
 with white, yellow, pink, red or even blue | flowers.
 The largest and grandest plant of the whole family of water lilies is that inhabi-
 tant of tropical America known by tho name Victoria regia. This species has leaves that
 are immense in size, some writers affirming that occasionally measure twelve feet across.
 The flowers are large in proportion, having
 sometimes diameter of twenty; three inches.
 The petals within are very many and gradu- ally change from pure white to pink and l then to crimson, and so the flowers fade in deepening gloyy, like summer sunset. This queen of the water lilies has now been grown successfully in New Jersey.
 Most of these water lilies, especially the 1 nymph@as, may be grown easily in . tub of | water, tub which may be stored in the cel-
 lar through the winter and brought out into
 the garden in summer. There is' no reason
 why the cultivation of thesa interesting and often magnificent plants should not become far more general than it Is.