﻿356 scuoPHULARiACE^ (Hiem). 



XXVIII. LIMOSELLA, Linn. 



Calyx thin, carapanulate or oLconical, shortly 5- or rarely 4- 

 dentate, persistent, strongly or feebly 5-nerved. Corolla mem- 

 branous, campanulate or sabrotate ; limb 5-cleft, spreading ; lobes 

 subequal, ovate, oblong or rounded ; imbricate in bud. Stamens 4, 

 didynamous or rarely 2 only (?), glabrous, all perfect ; filnments 

 filiform, terete, inserted on the corolla-tube ; anthers short, sub- 

 globose, appearing about the mouth of the corolla-tube or shortly 

 exserted, cells confluent. Ovary shortlj'- 2- celled at the base ; style 

 short or rather long, subfiliform, about equalling the corolla-tube, 

 often eccentric or oblique, subcapitate at the stigmatic apex, glabrous ; 

 ovules numerous. Fruit subglobose or spheroidal, almost indehiscent 

 or at length dehiscent with the valves parallel to the very delicate 

 placentiferous imperfect septum ; pericarp thin, tough. Seeds 

 numerous, small, ovoid or oblong-snlcate, striate, rugulose. 



Herbs, csespitose and usually creeping, glabrous, small, sometimes diminutive 

 or occasionally moderate in size, acaulescent or with stolon-like stems rooting at 

 the nodes or rarely caulescent, marsh or aquatic; leavcf? usually all radical or 

 some of them fasciculate at the nodes, rarely alternate on elongated prostrate 

 stems or branches ; flowers small or not large, white pale-rosy or blueisl), 

 inserted among the leaves on scape-like peduncles or subsessile. 



DiSTRiB. Besides the following there is an Australian species described and 

 some other forms regarded as distinct species by authors. The following five 

 species, having been considered mutually distinct by many botanists, and named 

 as such, I have provisionally treated them in that sense, although it seems that 

 they might properly be all regarded as varieties or forms of the original X. 

 aquatica, Linn.; 1 have failed to find valid characters to distinguish them 

 absolutely even as varieties. The following key ia drawn up with the view of 

 facilitating the recognition of the published forms. 

 Corolla-lobes shorter than the calyx : 

 Calyx not strongly nerved : 



Leaf-blade not exceeding £ in. long, usually 

 obtuse at the base or very narrow through- 

 out (1) aquatica. 



Leaf-blade J-Ia in. long, attenuate at the 



base, not very narrow above (2) maior. 



Calyx strongly 5-nerved (3) longiflora. 



Corolla-lobes as long as or longer than the calyx : 



Corolla-limb J-J in. in diam. ; leaf-blade yV-| in. 



Ion? " ... (4) capensis. 



Corolla-limb J-^ in. in diam. ; leaf-blade J-lf in. 

 ^ong (5) grandiflora. 



Limosella diandra, Linn. Mant. ii. 252, was founded on a very poor specimen 

 supposed to have occurred at the Cape, which Bentham in DC. Prodr. x. 426 

 treated as a doubtful variety, minima, of Glossostigma spatliuUtum, Am.; a 

 synonym is ^ephdium capen-se, Spre7ig. Syst. Verj.i.43; Thunberg, Fl- Ccf- 

 eel. Scliult. 480, regarded Linnjeus's plant as identical with his Limosella 

 capenns. 



1. L. aquatica (Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 631); an annual aquatic or 

 marsh herb, csespitose, with or without stolons ; root fibrous ; leaves 

 crowded, numerous, smooth, shining; blades erect, suberect or 



