Page:Paradisus Londinensis 1(2).djvu/57

 XIV.

CASTALIA MAGNIFICA.

Magnificent Castalia. ORDO NATURALIS.

Nymphæēæ. Ann. of Bot. v. 2. p. 57. Sect. 1. Monogynæ.

Calyx 4-5-phyllus, marginem tori cingens. Petala 12-30, pericarpio a basi fere usque ad medium imbricate. Filamenta 30-140, pericarpio altius imbricata, libera. Pericarpium 10-28-loculare, in partu putrescens, Nectarium 1, umbilico stigmatis sessile, unioniforme. Semina numerosa, parietibus sessilia, folliculo cincta. Flores albi, rubri, cæruleive, Magnoliarum ''æmuli. Cum uterum totum, quasi ob pudicitiam, occultent species hujus generis, Castalias dixi''.

C. foliorum lobis divaricatis, acuminatis: toro medioliformi. Pudica Nymphæa odorata. ''Kenn. in Bot. Rep. n. 297, cum Ic.'' Nymphæa odorata. ''Hort. Kew, v.'' 2. p. 227. Sponte nascentem in Virginia, legit J. Clayton. The Flowers diffuse a spicy odour, somewhat resembling Aniseeds.

C. foliorum lobis approximatis, vix acuminatis: toro cymbaliformi. Speciosa

Nymphæa alba. ''Smith in Engl. Bot. n.'' 160. cum Ic. in quâ Nervi foliorum stirpem monocotyledonem perperam referunt. Nymphæa alba. ''Linn. Sp. Pl. ed.'' 2. p. 729.

8ponte nascitur in Ins. Great Britain, aquis lente fluentibus.

The flowers are not without smell, as Dr. Smith relates, but have an agreeable perfume; and the detail he gave publicly, at the Royal Institution, of their descending under water in the night, is equally erroneous. I am sorry to find that Botanist has taken offence at the preface of this work (1): had I not long known him to be very sensitive, even before I named a genus after him in the Hortus Kewensis, I should have said much more upon the subject. Whether the passages he quote contain any thing like exultation, and which of us treads most closely in the steps of the great Linnè, I leave others to judge; but the next time he pays my labours a compliment, I beseech him not to do this at the expence of a friend, whom he affects to value and respect so highly, as the author of the Plantæ Guianenses, the descriptions and figures of which, in point of botanical accuracy, far excel any given to the world by him.