Family 3. BUTOMACEAE 
By GEORGE VALENTINE Naso 
Perennial aquatic or swamp herbs, usually lactescent, except in Automus, 
with leaves basal, or with these sometimes arranged along an extended stem, the 
blades ensiform or flat and dilated, and with regular hermaphrodite flowers, the 
sepals and petals imbricated. Sepals 3, persistent, usually coriaceous, com- 
monly green, or sometimes resembling the petals. Petals 3, thin, usually fuga- 
cious, sometimes persistent, commonly larger than the sepals. Stamens hypog- 
ynous, free, either 9, with 6 opposite the sepals and 3 opposite the petals, or 
numerous and disposed in many whorls, the external sterile ; filaments flattened ; 
anthers attached at the base, 2-celled, dehiscing laterally by a longitudinal fis- 
sure; pollen spheric. Carpels1-celled, usually 6. Ovules numerous, anatropous. 
Stigmas sessile, inserted at the apex of the ovary, or at the apex and inner 
face of the style. Fruiting carpels 1-celled, free or more or less united, dehisc- 
ing on the inner side. Seeds numerous, small, curved or straight, the testa 
smooth or cristate; embryo without endosperm, hippocrepiform, or rarely 
straight. 
Stamens 9, all fertile; embryo straight; plants not lactescent. 1, BuTomus. 
‘Stamens numerous, the external sterile; embryo hippocrepiform; plants 
lactescent. 2. LIMNOCHARIS. 
1. BUTOMUS L,. Sp. Pl. 372. 1753. 
Glabrous aquatic herbaceous perennials, with the leaves all basal, the blades ensiform, 
and the hermaphrodite long-pedicellate flowers arranged inan umbel. Sepals 3, persistent, 
resembling the petals. Petals 3, larger than the sepals, persistent. Stamens 9, all fertile, 
the filaments subulate. Carpels 6, united at the base. Styles apical, short, persistent, 
stigmatic on the inner side. Fruiting carpels 6, coriaceous, united at the base and crowned 
with the persistent style, dehiscing on the inner side. Seeds numerous, small, longitu- 
dinally striate, with a straight embryo. 
Type species, Butomus umbellatus Ly. 
1. Butomus umbellatus L. Sp. Pl. 372. 1753. 
A glabrous perennial with athick horizontal rootstock. Leaves erect ; sheath compressed, 
keeled, gradually narrowed above into the blade, which is ensiform above, more or less 
twisted, acute, gradually narrowed toward the apex, 3-10 dm. long, 2-10 mm. wide; scape 
erect, terete, smooth, up to 1 m. tall or more and usually exceeding the leaves; inflo- 
rescence many-flowered, the mature pedicels 4-10 cm. long; sepals and petals elliptic, 1-1.5 
cm. long, rose, the sepals somewhat tinged with green. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Europe. : 
DISTRIBUTION: Introduced along the shores of the St. Lawrence River, near Montreal, 
Quebec. Native of Europe and Asia. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Fl. Dan. £/. 604; Engl. Bot. pl. 651; Sv. Bot. pl. 296. 
2. LIMNOCHARIS H. & B. Pl. Aequin. 1: 116. 1807. 
Perennial aquatic plants, with flat leaf-blades, and an umbellate inflorescence borne on 
a scape, the flowers on long pedicels. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 3, persistent. 
Petals 3, thin, fugacious. Stamens numerous, the outer ones sterile. Carpels 15-20, 
jaterally compressed. Styles wanting. Stigmas sessile, extrorse. Fruiting carpels thick- 
ened on the furrowed back, the sides membranous, hyaline, dehiscing on the inner side. 
VoLuME 17, Part 1, 1909] 63 
