PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY 



349 



2. Wolffiella lingulata Hegelm 

 Tongue-shaped Wolffiella 



Fig. 853. 



(/ M 8 



Wolffia iiiigiilata Hegelm. Monogr. Lemnac. 132. 1868. 

 Wolffiella lingulata Hegelm. in Engler Bot. Jahrb. 21: 303. 

 1895. 



Fronds solitary or rarely in pairs, ovate to oblong, 

 tongue-shaped, slightly unsymmetrical, 1.7-3 mm. wide, 

 2.7-6.6 mm. long; stipe insertion on the margin of the 

 wall of the pouch. 



A iMexican species extending into California, wbere it has 

 been collected in San Mateo, Monterey, Kern, San Bernardino 

 and Orange Counties. Type locality : Mexico. 



Family 15. PONTEDERIACEAE. 

 Pickerel-weed Family. 

 Perennial aquatic or bog plants, the leaves 

 petioled. with thick blades, or long and grass-like. 

 Flowers perfect, -regular, more or less irregular, 

 solitary or spiked, subtended by leaf-like spathes. 

 Perianth free from the ovary, petaloid, 6-parted. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the 

 tube or the base of the perianth; mostly dissimilar or unequal; anthers 2-celled, 

 introrse. usually linear-oblong. Ovary 3-celled, with axile placentae, or 1 -celled 

 with 3 parietal placentae. Style 1 ; stigma 3-lobed or 6-toothed. Ovules anatropus, 

 numerous. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, or a 1-celled, 1-seeded utricle. Endo- 

 sperm copious ; embryo central, cylindric. 



A family of about 5 genera and 25 species, inhabiting the temperate and tropical regions of America, 

 Asia and Africa. 



L HETERANTHERA Ruiz & Pav. Prodr. Fl. Per. 9. 1794. 

 [ScHOLLERA Schreb., 1789, not Roth, 1788.] 



Herbs with creeping, ascending or floating stems, the leaves petioled. with oval to reni- 

 form blades, or grass-like. Flowers 1-several in a spathe, small, petaloid. Lobes of the peri- 

 anth nearly or quite equal, linear. Stamens 3, equal or unequal, inserted on the throat of 

 the perianth. Ovary fusiform, entirely or incompletely 3-celled by the intrusion of the 

 placentae ; ovules numerous ; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit an ovoid, many-seeded capsule, enclosed 

 in the withered perianth-tube. Seeds ovoid, many-ribbed. [Greek, referring to the unequal 

 anthers of some species.] 



A genus of about 10 species, 2 in tropical Africa, the others American, four of which occur in 

 the United States, Type species, Heteranthera reniformis Ruiz & Pav. 



\. Heteranthera dubia (Jacq.) ]\IacM. 



Water Star-grass. 



Fig. 854. 



Commeliiia dtihia Jacq. Obs. Bot. 3: 9. pi. 59. 1768. 

 Leptanthus gramineiis Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 25. 1803. 

 Heteranthera graminea Vahl. Enum. 2: 45. 1806. 

 Schollera graminea A. Gray, Man. 511. 1848. 

 Heteranthera dubia MacM. Met. Minn. 138. 1892. 

 Zosterelta dubia Small, Fl. Lancaster Co. 68, 319. 1913. 



Submerged aquatic, with slender forked stems, 6-10 dm. 

 long, often rooting at the nodes. Leaves linear, elongated, 

 sessile, acutish, finely parallel-veined, their sheaths thin, 

 tipped with small acute stipule-like appendages ; spathe 

 terminal, bearing a single flower exposed on the surface of 

 the water ; perianth light yellow, with a long thread-like 

 tube and very narrow segments ; stamens equal ; filaments 

 dilated below ; anthers sagittate, linear, 4 mm. long ; stigma 

 several-lobed ; capsule 1-celled with 3 parietal placentae, 

 many-seeded. 



In still water, Quebec to Oregon, south to Cuba and Mexico. 

 Only three collections have been made in the Pacific States : Latah 

 Creek near Marshall Junction, Washington (Suksdorf) ; Sauyies 

 Island, Willamette River (Hozvell), and Mendocino County, Cali- 

 fornia (I'asry). 



Piaropus crassipes (Mart.) Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 7: 241. 1893. Water Hyacinth. (Eichornia 

 crassipes Solms. in DC. Monog. Phan. 4: 527. 1883.) Aquatic herb, floating or rooting in the mud. 

 Leaves clustered at the nodes, ovate to orbicular, 3-8 cm. wide, leathery; petioles elongated, \yholly or 

 partly inflated; flowers in a spadix terminating a simple scape 10-40 cm. high, blue and showy, irregular; 

 perianth-segments 6, united into a tube below; stamens 6, irregularly adnate to the perianth, 3 included, 3 

 exserted; ovary 3-celled; ovules numerous. An attractive ornamental plant frequently grown in water gar- 

 dens, naturalized in a few places in California; Yolo, Fresno and San Bernardino Counties. A troublesome 

 plant in the tropics and the Gulf States, where it often covers slow-running streams, greatly impeding naviga- 

 tion. Native of tropical America. 



