Sepals 4, green outside, nearly free. Petals numerous, in many rows, the innermost gradually passing into stamens, imbricately inserted all over the ovary. Stamens indefinite, inserted on the ovary, the outer with dilated filaments. Ovary 12--35-celled, the concave summit tipped with a globular projection at the centre, around which are the radiate stigmas; these project at the margin, and are extended into linear and incurved sterile appendages. Fruit depressed-globular, covered with the bases of the decayed petals, maturing under water. Seeds enveloped by a sac-like aril.--Flowers white, pink, yellow, or blue, very showy. (Dedicated by the Greeks to the Water-Nymphs.) 1. N. odoràta, Ait. (SWEET-SCENTED WATER-LILY.) _Rootstock with few and persistent branches_; leaves orbicular, cordate-cleft at the base to the petiole (5--9´ wide), the margin entire; stipules broadly triangular or almost kidney-shaped, notched at the apex, appressed to the rootstock; _flower_ white, _very sweet scented_ (often as much as 5½´ in diameter when fully expanded, opening early in the morning, closing in the afternoon); petals obtuse; anthers blunt; aril much longer than the distinctly stipitate _oblong seeds_ (these about 1½´´ long).--Ponds and still or slow-flowing water; common. June--Sept.--Varies with pinkish-tinged and rarely with bright pink-red flowers (especially at Barnstable, Mass.), the leaves often crimson underneath,--and in size by gradations into Var. mìnor, Sims., with leaves only 2--5´ and flowers 2--3´ broad.--Shallow water, in cold bogs and in sandy soil. 2. N. renifórmis, DC. (TUBER-BEARING W.) Leaves reniform-orbicular, mostly larger (8--15´ wide) and more prominently ribbed than the last, rarely purplish beneath; _rootstock bearing numerous spontaneously detaching often compound tubers; flower scentless_ (or with a slight odor as of apples), white, never pinkish, 4½--9´ in diameter, the petals proportionally broader and blunter than in n. 1; the fruit more depressed, and with fewer but much larger (i.e. twice as broad) _globular-ovoid seeds_, which when mature are barely enclosed by the aril and not stipitate. (N. tuberosa, _Paine_.)--Lakes, slow rivers, etc., western N. Y. (from Oneida Lake, _Paine_) and near Meadville, Penn., to Mich., E. Neb., and probably in the Southern States. July--Sept. 5. NÙPHAR, Smith. YELLOW POND-LILY. SPATTER-DOCK. Sepals 5, 6, or sometimes more, colored, or partly green outside, roundish, concave. Petals numerous, small and thickish, stamen-like or scale-like, inserted with the very numerous short stamens on the receptacle under the ovary, not surpassing the disk-like 8--24-rayed sessile stigma, persistent and at length recurved. Fruit ovoid, naked, usually ripening above water. Aril none.--Rootstock creeping, cylindrical. Leaves with a deep sinus at the base. Flowers yellow or sometimes tinged with purple, produced all summer. (Name said to be of Arabic origin.)