WATER CHINQUAPIN (Nelumbium luteum), a North American aquatic plant of the water-lily family (Nymphaeaceae), called also American nelumbo or lotus, rare and local in ponds and slow streams from Connecticut to Michigan and southward to Florida and Louisiana. It is a stout plant, rising from a hori zontal tuber-bearing rootstock, with large shield-shaped leaves, to 2 ft. across, some floating but mostly rising high out of the water, and solitary pale-yellow flowers, 4 to 1 o in. broad, borne
on long stalks usually higher than the leaves. The edible tubers and farinaceous seeds were used for food by the Indians, who probably introduced it into the eastern States. It is sometimes grown in water-gardens for its ornate foliage. (See WATER-LILY.)