Tas. 4564. 
PISTIA STRATIOTES. 
Water Lettuce. 
Nat. Ord. Arnorpe# (Pist1acrm).—Monecta PENTANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. Spatha basi tubulosa, cum spadice connata: limbo patente, pro- 
cessu spadicem superne involucrante aucto. Spadix interrupte androgynus, basi 
foemineus, apice libero masculus. Anthere 3-8, spadicis apice incrassato adnate, 
subgloboss, sulco transverso dehiscentes. Ovarium 1, spadicis basi adnate 
oblique insidens, 1-loculare; ovuda plurima, e placenta prope basim parietali 
subhorizontalia (erecta, Blume), orthotropa. Stylus terminalis, crassus. Stigma 
subcyathiforme. Bacea 1-locularis, poly- vel abortu oligosperma. Semina cylin- 
drica, per hilum basilare funiculo brevissimo patelliformi insidentia, testa (arillus, 
Turp.) coriacea, crassa. Embryo minimus, cylindraceus, in apice albuminis in- 
clusus ; radicula hilo e diametro opposita.—Herbee aguatice, libere, natantes, 
Jlagellifere ; radicibus fibrosis. Folia sessilia,- rosaceo-expansa, integerrima, ner- 
vosa. Spadices avillares, solitarit, scapo brevi suffulti. Kth. 
Pistt1a Stratiotes; foliis rosulatis cuneatis retusis, nervis subtus lamelleeformi- 
bus basi confluentibus, antheris 5 (an semper?), spadice antheras haud 
superante. ; 
Pistta Stratiotes. Linn. Fl. Zeyl. un. 322. Roxb. Corom. v. 3. t. 268. Hjusd. 
Fl. Ind. v. 3. p. 331. Spreng. Syst. Veg. v. 2. p. 17%. Kunth, Enum. Plant. 
v.38. p.8. (Here probably may also be referred P. Migyptiaca, Schleid. ; 
P. crispata, Bl. §& Kth.; P. minor, Bl. § Kih.; P. occidentalis, Bi. § Kth.; 
P. linguiformis, Bl. § Kth.; P. Leprieurii, B/.; P. Gaudichaudii, Schleid. ; 
P. spathulata, Mich. & Kth.; P. commutata, Schleid. § Kth.; and P. ob- 
cordata, Schleid. § Kth.—Pistia? vivipara, Schleid., we are told, is Parkeria 
juvenilis !) 
Koppa-pain. Rheede, Hort. Malab. v. 11. p. 32. 
PLaNTaGo aquatica, &. Rumph. Amb. v. 6. p. 14. 
LEnrTIcuLa palustris, &c. Sloane, Jam. v. 1. t. 2. f. 2. 
Pistra aquatica, &e. P. Browne’s Jam. p. 399. 
With no floral beauty to recommend it, a more delicate and 
graceful object cannot well be seen, in a tropical house, than a 
vessel of water or a tank with tufts of Pistia Stratotes floating 
on the surface, of the tenderest green imaginable: the leaves 
are connected together into a rose-shaped tuft, and these send 
out runners bearing other plants in all stages of growth. Dr. 
Roxburgh aptly compares them to half-grown Lettuce-plants. 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1851. 
