192 CLASS MONCECIA. 



ble. To this peculiar genus, known as the Bow-wood 

 and Osage Orange, I gave some years ago the name 

 of Madura. The junction of the germs into a single, 

 large berry, brings this genus in character very near 

 to the Jlrtocarpw, or Bread Fruit. 



In the order Pentandria comes the Amaranihus, 

 or Princes' Feather, forming the type of the natural 

 group Amaranthacete. In both the fertile and ste- 

 rile flower, the calyx is 3 to 5 leaved, and there is 

 no corolla ; the stamina are 3 to 6 ; there are 3 styles, 

 and a 1-celled, 1-seeded capsule, opening transverse- 

 ly all round. They are, I believe, all annuals, and 

 several of them cultivated. One of the most re- 

 markable is the A. tricolor, whose leaves are blotched 

 green, yellow, red, and sometimes brown. 



In Hexandria comes the Zizania, or Wild Rice, 

 a tall aquatic grass, common on the margins of large 

 ponds, lakes, and rivers of still water. — The sterile, 

 flower has no calyx, but a 2-valved and partly awned 

 corolla ; the fertile flower is also without calyx ; the 

 corolla of 2 valves, hooded and awned ; the style 2- 

 parted, and the cylindric seed, like common Rice, is 

 invested by the corolla. The leaves in Z. aquatica, 

 are rather broad, and like other grass in appearance ; 

 the flowers are in a large pyramidal pancicle, the fer- 

 tile ones uppermost, at length approximating to the 

 rachis, so as to form a kind of spike. The aborigines 

 of the north-western territories, and particularly those 

 of Lake Michigan, were in the habit of collecting 

 large quantities of this rice for food, and it is very 

 palatable, and swells when boiled as much as genuine 

 rice. 



In the artifical order Polyandria you will find the 

 genus Sagittaria, or Arrow-head, of the natural group 

 Alismaceje. The common species, as well as all 

 the others, is aquatic, growing in muddy still waters. 



