Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)
Radics, F.: A revision of the Nymphaea material in Hungarian Natural History Museum
In his impressive Nymphaea-monography, CONARD, as I have mentioned above, lists also the occurrence in Hungary of N. Candida PRESL, when treating its geographic distribution, as follows: "Vésztő, in Hungary (BORBÁS, 1881)." And in the bibliography attached to his work, he refers the reader to BORBÁS'S original paper (19). There is in our Department a Nymphaea specimen (inventory number 58075) originating from V. BORBÁS'S collection in 1878, identified by this author as N. alba L. (SIMONKAI had later revided also this herbarial plant and identified it also as Castalia minoriflora (BORB.) SIMK.). Despite all this, there is still the possibility that in the standing waters of the "Dead" Körös (Vésztő) both N. alba and N. Candida occur, if it were not for the circumstances of the habitat and the survival, constancy, and manifestly hybrid origin, of our herbarial specimen. The exsiccate No. 58075 namely also displays alba, Candida, and some tetragona traits, as follows: alba-features : the grooved carpellary rays; the infundibuliformly intruding stigmatic disk ; the lighter spot in the astomatic area above the petiole and the lighter zone of the primary veins ; the straight decurrence of the inner margin of the lobes (sinus in one of the leaves; the elongately aculeate pollen; candida-features: the angular line of insertion of the sepals projecting downward; the persistent, not decaying sepals; the staminal filaments wider than the anthers ; the violet reddish colour of the stigmatic disk and the flat carpellary style numbering 12; the slender axile process or nectarium; the stamenless part of the depresso-sphaerical torus below the stigmatic disk ; the oval shape of the leaf, and mainly the proportion of the sinus to the laminar length (1:2.5); the protruding veins on the underside of the leaves ; the sharply angular apex of the lobes ; the distal convergence of the lower pair of (lobal) primaries; the coarser granulation of the pollen ; tetragona-features: the yellow, fine, granulate pollen; the slender state of the peduncle and one of the petioles ; the length of the inner stamens and anthers ; the brown-spotted appearance of the upperside of the leaves. The hybrid state of the plant is indicated not only by the mixed appearance of these features in the several organs or the varying proportions of the primary area and the lamellar radius, but, in my opinion, also by BORBÁS'S remark (I.e.), namely that he had found a N. alba var. Candida (PRESL) specimen whose younger leaves were slightly peltate "folds peltatis") and their underside a violet colour: "Was also bei N. thermalis normal ist, das kommt ausnahmsweise auch bei A T . alba vor" (I.e., p. 423). With respect to this variety, let us note that the name of the plant given above by BORBÁS is not listed among the synonyms in CONARD'S work. The facts and data brought forth up to now (the detailed analysis of the herbarial plants, identical, or presumably identifiable, with the descriptions, the contradictions of literature, etc.), emphasize still more the uncertainty of the respective section of the Manual cited in the introduction of the present paper. To answer the question raised in the subtitle, and advancing also the results received from a detailed study of the entire Nymphaea collection of the Department, we have to state in connection with the plants described up to now that no pure N. Candida PRESL or N. alba (L.) PRESL specimens had been found in the Herbaria, and still less N. tetragona GEORGI. Despite this, our plants have a hybrid character, the cause and circumstances of which will have to be clarified by future investigations. With respect to the naming of the Nymphaeas inhabiting the Carpathian Basin, GUNNARSSON'S proposal seems to be the most suitable one; he named the birch hybrids, by listing the parent species, in accordance with their rate of similarity to any one of the parents or, indeed, intermediate state, as forma sub- and intermedia respectively (20, p. 128). Though this process is arbitraty, it reflects more truly the state of affairs conforming to our present knowledge.
