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72 about 15, closely crowded with seeds. Seeds ovoid-globular, ribbed with vertical lines of little tubercles, and very minutely transversely striate; aril white, transparent. Seeds edible.

The flowers are sweet-scented. They sink under water to mature and ripen.

Uses:—The rootstock of this plant, says my old friend, Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji, at page 16 of his Vanaspati-Varnana (Gujrati), is used on fast days by Hindus as a nourishing article of food, after boiling and mixing it with milk and sugar. The powdered rootstock is also given in dyspepsia, diarrhoea and piles. A decoction of flowers is also given in palpitation of heart, it is not stated in what quantity or of what strength.

55. N. stellatta, Willd. 114.

Sanskrit:—Nilotpal, Indiwar.

Vern.:—(Sinhalese) Monch; (Porebunder) Tvamal,Kala Kamal, Kumdu; (Guj.) Nilkamal; (Mar.) Poyani, Krishna-Kamal. (Hindi) Nil-padma, Lilophal, Nil-kamal.

Habitat:—Common throughout the warmer parts of India and Ceylon, in shallow streams, tanks and ponds. Open all day, says Trimen. But some of the pale blue and drab-coloured varieties in Ratnagiri and Thana (Konkan) open at sunset and close at sunrise. They are found in tropical and Northern Africa. Trimen notes a violet-coloured variety from Ceylon, also pinkish-purple.

Rootstock ovoid, short, erect; leaves on long, rather slender, submerged petioles; blade floating; about 5-8 in. diam., sagittate-rotund, very obtuse, with a usually narrow sinus, 2-3 in. deep at base, entire or coarsely sinuate, glabrous on both sides. Flowers solitary on long peduncles, 3-6 in. diam., sepals narrowly oblong -lanceolate, acute or subacute. Petals linear-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse. Stamens 40-50, with a tongue-shaped appendage beyond the anthers. Stigmatic rays ' acute, 10-30, curved upwards at the ends, without appendages, in short horns. Fruit globular. Seeds longitudinally striate. Flowers through-out the year.

Uses:—Its uses are those of N. Lotus. Roots and seeds edible, especially in famines.