POLYANDRIA. 



ORDER 



WATER ALOE. Of this Genus tliere are three hexagy 

 species, but this is the only species indigenous to Great ^^^' 

 Britain, and the only British plant of this Order. It is six Pistiiia. 

 rarely found in any otherpart ofEngland, than Lincoln- 

 shire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, where it grows in 

 deep ditches of the fens, sometimes so plentifully as to 

 cover the whole surface, to the exclusion of all other 

 plants. It blossoms in July. The pulp of the seed 

 of this plant in its natural state is clear like the vitreous 

 humour of the eye^ in spirits of wine it becomes 

 opaque and white like the boiled white of an eggj 

 plunged into water, it becomes clear again. 



This Genus, is nearly allied to the Frog-bit, Class 



xxn. 



ORDER 7. 



EGYPllAN-BEAN LILY. This plant isindigenous polygy. 



to still pools and recesses in the margins of running .* 



streams in the East Indies, growing in a deep muddy ^'^^j^^^ ^^^ 

 soil, in a depth of wafer not less than two or three iadefi^ite. 

 feet, nor more than six. 



When the seeds become ripe, the capsula contain- 

 ing them separates from its footstalk, and falls into the 

 water with all the seeds in their respective cells, which 

 then begin to vegetate, and thus present a cornu- 



