LEMNACE^. 



S65 



A. ca'lamus. 



Summit of the scape above the spadix very long' and leaf-like. Groves in 

 wet soils throughout the U. States. The thick, prostrate, creeping rhizonia is 

 highly valued for its aromatic flavor, its warm and pungent taste. The long, 

 sword-shaped leaves are readily distinguished by the ridge running their 

 whole length. The cylindrical spadix is about 3 inches long and ^ inch in 

 diameter, covered with small, green flowers, and bursting from the side of 

 the leaf-like scape in June and July. Sweet Flag. 



6. SYMPLOCA'RPUS. 



Spathe ventricose; spadix oval, covered with perfect flow- 

 ers ; perianth deeply 4-parted, segments cucullate, cuneate, 

 truncate, persistent, becoming thick and spongy ; berries 

 globose, 2-seeded, imbedded in the spadix. 



Gr. a-vj/,7rXox.'r)j connection, xag^roj, fruit. Perennial, aquatic, acaulescent 

 herbs. 



S. FCE'TIDUS. JYutt. Pothos fcetida. Mx. Ictodes fcetidus. Bw. 



Leaves cordate-ova], acute ; spadix subglobose, preceding the leaves. A com- 

 mon plant, growing in swamps, meadows and ditches, renov/ned for its odor, 

 which is scarcely less offensive than that of the animal whose name it bears. 

 Early in spring, the swelling spathe is seen emerging first from the ground or 

 water, more or less covered with purplish spots, its edg-es partly infolded, and 

 its point incurved. It encloses the spadix, which is oval, covered with flowers 

 of a dull purple. The leaves, which arise after the flowers, are of a bright 

 green, numerous, becoming very lar^e (often 20 inches long and 12 wide). 

 April. Skunk Cabbage. 



ORDER CXXXVII. LEMNACEiE. m Duckweed IViba. 



Fls. — 2, arhlamydeous, bursting through a membranous spathe. 



Sta. — Definite, 2 or more. 



Ova. — l-ceiletl, with 1 or more erect ovules. Style .short. Stigma simple. 



i'>. — Utricle 1 — several-seeded. Seeds with a fungous testa. 



A small order of floating, annual herbs, consisting of a frond (stem and leaf confounded) 

 sending down from the under surface roots which hang loosely in the water, and producing 

 from the margin the spathaceous flowers. 



LEMNA. 



Sterile and fertile flowers in the same spathe, the former 

 of 2 collateral stamens, the latter of a simple, carinate ovary, 

 with a style and stigma. 



Gt. ^ii^i/^U; a scale or husk ; from the resemblance of the fronds. 

 1. L. trisu'lca. 



FroTuls elliptic-lanceolate, thin, serrate at one extremity and caudate at the 

 other; rooi,? solitary. Floating in ponds and pools of clear water. Fronds 

 nearly ^ inch in length, diaphanous, with a tail-like a])pendage at base, obtuse 

 at apex, the new ones issuing in a cruciate manner from lateral fissures in the 

 margin of ilie old. Root a solitary fibre, ending in a sheath. Flowers very 

 minute. Utricle sitting on the upper surface of the frond. June — Sept. 



Ivy-leaved Duck-meat. 

 FF* 



