Description:—An aquatic plant with a submerged rhizome from which the floating leaves and flowers are produced. Rhizome 4-5 cm. in diameter, black and spongy. Leaves about 6 to each rhizome; petiole long or short according to the depth of the water, terete, striate, thickly clothed with transparent hairs; lamina green above, brownish beneath, up to 30 cm. long and 20-26 cm. broad, orbicular or elliptic, rounded at the apex, and with a deep acute triangular notch at the base, with entire or sometimes wavy margins, and prominent veins beneath, glabrous. Peduncles longer than the petioles, raising the flower well above the surface of the water. Sepals 4, green outside, blue within, 4-6 cm. long, 1·5-2 cm. broad, ovate-oblong, acuminate. Petals numerous, about 4 cm. long, 1 cm. broad, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, blue. Torus thick, fleshy. Stamens numerous, in several rows; filaments flattened; the outer longer than the inner, and ½-⅔ the length of the petals; anthers yellow, with a long linear blue appendage at the apex. Carpels many, inserted in the torus; stigma arcuate, obtuse. Fruit a many-seeded berry. Seeds spongy.
Plate 29.—Fig. 1, torus; Fig. 2, plant reduced.
F.P.S.A., 1921.
30.
K. A. Lansdell del.