Pontederia. HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. BE 
PONTEDERIA. Schreb. gen. n. 545. 
Calyx, spathe common. Corol six-petalled or parted. 
Stamina and style ascending. Capsule superior, three- 
celled, three-valved, * 
_1.P. vaginalis. Willd. 2. 23. Corom-plh-n~L0——— 
Leaves cordate, acute, from: five to seven-nerved ; ra-- 
cemes peduncled, after the flowers decay, recurved. 
Carimgala. Rheed. Mal, 11 t. 44. 
Sans. Neelotpala. | 
Beng. Nouka- 
Teling. Nirocancha. 
A native of the borders of sweet water lakes or marshy 
places. It flowers. during the rains, 
Root perennial, creeping. Leaves radical, narrow-cor- 
date, pointed, entire, smooth, glossy ; ; from two to four © 
inches long, and from one/to.two broad, _ Petioles sub- 
erect, tapering, fistulous, smooth, from six to twelve 
inches long; those that bear a raceme are swelled a lit- 
tle about the middle, and there open like a spathe length- 
ways near the base, those that do not bear flowers are 
enlarged into a sheath, which embraces the exterior 
_ leaves. Raceme short-peduncled, after flowering time, 
drooping, from six to twelve flowered. Pedicels about 
three ausTise of an inch long. Flowers blue and pretty. 
aes other than the common spathe of the raceme. 
a Petah a six, the three exterior are the smallest, and oblong, 
the three interior obovate. Filaments ascending, in- 
‘Serted round the base of the germ, the lowermost one is 
generally broad, and two-cleft, its lower division bears a 
blue anther, the other nothing ; the rest are yellow.. Germ 
og superior. | Style single. ae gladular. | 
2 P. hastata, Willd. 2.21. Corom. pl. 2. NU. 
: Leaves triangular, or hastate, pointed, na 
: seerr sessile, erect. ‘* 
ae oe ee 
