366 UMBELLIFERAE. HYDROCOTYLE. | 
TRIBE L.—HYDROCOTYLEX. Spr.; DC. 
_Fruit compressed laterally. Mericarps convex or (rarely) acute on the back: 
primary ridges 5, sometimes obsolete; the lateral ones being either marginal or on 
the commissura: the intermediate ones most prominent: secondary ridges some- 
times persistent and filiform, sometimes almost or entirely wanting. Vitte none. 
Seed and albumen flattish in front. —Umbels simple or imperfect. 
L HYDROCOTYLE. Tourn. ; Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 188 ; Gaertn. fr. t. 22. 
Calyx-tube slightly compressed ; limb with the margin obsolete. Petals 
ovate, entire, acute, spreading; their apex straight. Fruit laterally com- 
pressed and flattened. Mericarps without vitte: primary ridges 5, filiform, 
the dorsal and lateral ones often obsolete, the intermediate ones enlarged. 
Seed carinately compressed.—Herbaceous or rarely suffrutescent plants, usu- 
ally slender and aquatic. Umbels simple. Involucre few-leaved. Flowers 
sessile or pedicelled, whitish. 
1130. (1) H. Asiatica (Linn. :) leaves attached by the margin, orbicular- 
reniform, equally erenated, 7-nerved, glabrous, or slightly villous on the un- 
der side when young : petioles and peduncles fascicled, sprinkled with soft 
hairs: umbels capitate, shortly peduncled, few- (3-4-)flowered : fruit orbi- 
cular, reticulated, with 4 ribs on each of the flat sides—DC. prod. 4. p. 62; 
Spr. syst. 1. p. 875; Roxb. fl. Ind. 2. p. 88 ; in E. I. C. mus. tab. 1385 ; Wall.: 
L. n. 560; Wight! cat. n. 1185.—H. rotundifolia, Wall.! L. n. 562. c. (not 
Roxb.).—Rheed. Mal. 10. t. 46. 
1131. (2) H. tenella (Don. :) cespitose, creeping, glabrous: petiole usually 
solitary, slender: leaves attached by the margin, reniform, about 7-lob , 
shining; lobes roundish, erenated: umbels capitate, 6-8-flowered, sessile : 
fruit minute, orbieular, prominently 3-ribbed on each side, smooth and fiat 
between the ribs.— Don, prod. fl. Nep. p. 183; DC. prod. 4. p. 64; Wight ! cat. 
n. 1186.—H. Wightiana, Wall.! L. n. 7220. 
1132. (3) H. polycephala (W. & A.:) stems rooting, scabrous or nearly 
glabrous ; branches petioles and peduncles, and the leaves sparingly on both 
sides, scabrous from short stout hairs: leaves attached by the margin, orbieu- 
lar-reniform, 7-lobed ; lobes scarcely acute, coarsely crenated: peduncles 
hoary, numerous (6-18) and umbellate in the axil of the uppermost shortly 
petioled leaf, almost as long as the leaf: flowers all fertile, numerous (20- 
30 together), at first capitate and almost sessile, afterwards (in fruit) on short 
glabrous somewhat permanent pedicels: fruit didymous, slightly 2-ribbed on 
each side, smooth and flat between the ribs.— Wight! cat. n. 1187. 
Closely allied in many points to H. Nepalensis. We had almost considered 
this to be H. Heyneana of Wallich, but De Candolle's character is too much 
at variance to permit of our uniting them. 
1133. H. Zeylanica (DC.:) stems puberulous: leaves attached by the 
margin, glabrous, orbicular reniform, 7-nerved, 7-lobed ; lobes slightly acute; 
coarsely crenated : petioles long, puberulous at the apex: peduncles pube- 
rulous, the ultimate ones by the disappearance of the leaf apparently opposite 
and racemosely umbellate: umbels densely capitate, 20-flowered.—P ; Hey- 
neana, peduncles bearing at the apex 8-10 umbels arranged in an umbel; pe- 
dicels retrorsely hispid —D.C. prod. 4. p. 67.—H. Heyneana, Wall. L. n. 999^. — 
Our character is taken from De Candolle : we have not seen either variety ; 
probably in the var. £, it is the peduncles and not the pedicels that are his- —— 
pid i and the ultimate branches, not the peduncles, that bear the umbels OF - 
