SUBORDER NYMPHAEINEAE FAMILY 76. NYMPHAEACEAE Aquatic herbs. Leaves floating, undivided, usually peltate. Flowers solitary. Sepals 3 or more. Petals 3 or more. Stamens numerous. Anthers opening inwards by longitudinal slits. Carpels 6 or more, distinct or united below into a many-celled ovary. Stigmas free or partly united. Fruit indehiscent or bursting irregularly. Seeds albuminous.--Genera 3, species 20. 1. Carpels separate, few-ovuled. Sepals 3. Petals 3. Flowers red, axillary. Leaves ovate, without stipules.--Species 1. Southern West Africa (Angola). Used medicinally. (_Hydropeltis_ Michx.) [Subfamily =CABOMBOIDEAE.=] =Brasenia= Schreb. Carpels united, at least on the outside, many-ovuled. Sepals 4-5. Petals numerous. [Subfamily =NYMPHAEOIDEAE.=] 2 2. Sepals 4. Ovary more or less free from the calyx, but adnate to the corolla and the stamens. Seeds with an aril. Leaves with a stipule. Leaf-and flower-stalks with 4-7 large air-canals.--Species 20. Used as ornamental and fodder-plants; the root-stock and the seeds are edible and yield a drink, medicaments, and a dye. “Water-lily.” (_Castalia_ Salisb.) [Tribe TETRASEPALEAE.] =Nymphaea= Smith Sepals 5. Petals smaller. Flowers yellow. Ovary free. Seeds without an aril. Leaves without stipules. Leaf-and flower-stalks with many small air-canals.--Species 1. North-west Africa (Algeria). Used as ornamental plants, as fodder, and for the preparation of a drink. (_Nymphaea_ Salisb.) [Tribe NUPHAREAE.] =Nuphar= Smith FAMILY 77. CERATOPHYLLACEAE Branched submerged aquatic herbs. Leaves whorled, deeply divided into forked, linear segments. Flowers solitary or in pairs in the axils of the leaves, without bracteoles, unisexual. Perianth simple; segments 9-12, subequal, united at the base, greenish or whitish. Stamens 12-16, inserted upon a convex receptacle; anthers opening outwards. Ovary superior, 1-celled. Ovule 1, pendulous, straight. Style simple; stigma entire, grooved. Fruit a nut. Seed with a thin albumen; embryo with a large, many-leaved plumule. Genus 1, species 3. =Ceratophyllum= L. SUBORDER RANUNCULINEAE FAMILY 78. RANUNCULACEAE Herbs, undershrubs, or shrubs. Leaves usually divided. Perianth simple or consisting of a calyx and a corolla of free petals, hypogynous or nearly so. Stamens usually numerous. Anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Carpels superior, solitary or separate, rarely (_Nigella_) united. Ovules inverted. Seeds with a straight embryo and copious albumen.--Genera 11, species 140. (Plate 46.) 1. Carpels containing each a single perfect ovule and sometimes some rudimentary ones, separate, indehiscent. [Tribe ANEMONEAE.] 2 Carpels containing several perfect ovules each, dehiscing at the suture. 7 2. Petals with a pit or scale at the base or the middle. 3 Petals without a pit or scale, or wanting. Ovule pendulous. 4