Tas. 6487. 
EICHORNTA AZUREA. 
Native of Brazil. 
Nat. Ord. PonTEDERIACEE. 
Genus Ercnornia, Kunth. ; (Enum. Plant. vol. iv. p. 129.) 
ErcHornia azurea; rhizomate crasso, foliis orbiculatis v. rhombeo-orbiculatis 
obtusis in petiolum elongatum crassum basi vix intumescentem angustatis, 
pedunculo crasso in spatham solitariam brevem recurvam obtusam dilatato, 
racemo multifloro, rachi robusto, floribus 2-nis breviter pedicellatis sparsis, 
perianthio extus piloso, segmentis obovato-oblongis obtusis exterioribus 
majoribus, interioribus marginibus erosis, staminibus fere inclusis, superioribus 
subeequaliter insertis 3 inferiorum postico demissius inserto, filamentis omnium 
brevibus subulatis subzquilongis puberulis, stylo gracili puberulo, 
E. azurea, Kunth, Enum. Plant. vol. iv. p. 129; Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 590; 
Seubert in Mart. Fl. Bras. vol. iii. parti. p.90; Schlecht. in Halle Abhandl. 
Nat. Gesell. vol. vi. p. 149, ewm Ic.; Hemsley in The Garden, 1880, p. 220. 
Pontederia azurea, Swartz, Fl. Ind. Oce. vol.i. p. 609 (non Bot. Mag. t. 2932). 
P. tumida, Willd: Herb. n. 6369 (ex Kunth, l. c.). 
P. aquatica, Vell. Fl. Flum. Ie. vol. iii. t. 164. 
The plants belonging to the Order Pontederiaceew are de- 
scribed in systematic works ina very unsatisfactory manner; 
this is due to the fact that their very fugacious flowers 
cannot be analyzed in herbarium specimens, on account of 
their membranous consistence, and to the variations to 
which the leaves and stems of the same plant are subject, 
according to whether it grows in deep or shallow water or 
inmud. The genus Pontederia of Linnzeus was in 1843 
rightly divided into two by Kunth, who retained the old 
name for the species with one-ovuled ovarian cells, and 
founded upon the many-ovuled the new genus LHichornia. 
Seubert, in Martius and Endlicher’s Flora of Brazil, has 
adopted those genera, describing six 8. American species 
of the former and eight of Fichornia. It is with the latter 
we have to do in the matter of the plant here figured, and 
APRIL Ist, 1880. 
