44] 
PONTEDERIACE. (PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY.) 
Aquatic herbs, with perfect more or less irregular flowers from a 
spathe, the petal-like 6-merous imbricated perianth free from the 
3-celled ovary, introrse anthers, single style with 3-lobed or 6-toothed 
stigma, and a 3-celled many-seeded pod, or a 1-celled 1-seeded utricle. 
1. Pontederia. Spike many-flowered: stamens6: fruit a 1-seeded utricle. 
2, Heteranthera. Spathe one to few-flowered: stamens 3: pod many-seeded. 
| 1. PONTEDERIA L. (PICKEREL-WEED.) 
Stout herbs growing in shallow water, with creeping rootstock pro- 
ducing erect long-petioled mostly cordate leaves, l-leaved stem bearing 
a spike of violet-blue ephemeral flowers, a funnelform 2-lipped  per- 
ianth (8 upper divisions united to form the 3-lobed upper lip, the 3 
lower spreading), the 3 anterior stamens exserted (posterior short), 
blue oval anthers, and a 1-celled 1-seeded utricle, 
1. P.cordata L. Leaves arrow-shaped, blunt: spikes dense, from a spathe-like 
bract: upper perianth-lobe with a pair of yellow spots: fruiting calyx-tube crested 
with 6-toothed ridges.—From the Trinity to Hockley, Var. ANGUSTIFOLIA Torr, has 
triangular-elongated and tapering scarcely cordate leaves. 
2. HETERANTHERA Ruiz and Pavon. (MuUb PLANTAIN.) 
Creeping, floating or submerged low herbs in mud or shallow water, 
with a one to few-flowered spathe bursting from the sheathing side or 
base of a petiole, slender-tubed salverform 6-parted ephermal perianth 
with 3 stamens in the throat, ereet anthers, and a 1 (or incompletely 
3)-eelled many-seeded pod. 
* Stamens unequal, 
1. H. limosa Vahl. Creeping or floating plants: leaves rounded, oblong or lance- 
oblong, obtuse at both ends, long-petioled: spathe with one large blue flower: the 
two posterior filaments with ovate yellow anthers, the other longer and with oblong 
or sagittate greenish anther: pod incompletely 3-celled.—Wet places, along the 
Limpia and to the Guadalupe. 
2, H. Mexicana Watson. Stems short, ascending from a short rooting base, 
glandular pubescent above the inflorescence: leaves linear, with dilated sheathing 
base 7 to 10 dm, long: spathe ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 18 mm, long: spike pedun- 
culate above spathe, 12 to 15-tlowered, naked, the flowers scattered and ascending: 
limb of perianth blue, with a white center: one stamen nearly twice as long as the 
others and equalling the style: pod oblong ovate: seed globose, 12-striate.—Devil’s 
River. 
* * Stamens alike. 
3. H. graminea Vahl. Submerged grass-like herbs, with only the flowers reach- 
ing the surface: stems slender, branching, leafy, bearing a terminal 1-flowered 
spathe (becoming lateral): leaves linear, translucent, sessile: flowers small, pale 
yellow, with very long filiform tube: anthers sagittate: pod 1-celled.—Santa Maria, 
Cameron County. 
XYRIDACEZ. (YELLOW-EYED-GRASS FAMILY.) 
Rush-like herbs, with equitant leaves sheathing the base of a naked 
scape which is terminated by a head of perfect flowers, glumaceous 
calyx, regular colored corolla, 3 stamens with extrorse anthers, and the 
3-valved mostly 1-celled pod containing several or many seeds. 
