PENTANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Hydrocotyle. 95 



B. annuura minimum. Moris, v. 3. 300. sect. 9. t. 12. f. 4. 



Agostana tenuissima. Bute v. 8. 299. 



Odontites tenuissima. Spreng. Prodr. 33. 



Auricula leporis minima. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p-2. 201./. 



In muddy salt-marshes. 



On the shore near Worthing, Sussex. Mr. T. F. Forster. At 

 Lynn, Wisbeach, Cley, Holkham, &c. in salt-water ditches, or 

 muddy places overflowed by the tide. 



Annual. August, September. 



Root zigzag. Stem slender, erect, wiry, smooth, from 3 to 12 

 inches high. Leaves linear-lanceolate, tapering at each end, 

 erect, three-ribbed, rather glaucous. Umbels axillary, solitary, 

 nearly sessile, sometimes disposed in an interrupted spike ; each 

 of about 3 small yellowish^oujers, Bracteas 5, awl-shaped, acute, 

 ribbed, nearly equal, rising much above the flowers. Fruit 

 roundish-ovate, with 3 very prominent angles or ribs, besides 

 those at the juncture, to each seed, the whole intermediate sur- 

 face covered with fine granulations, as in B. semicomposituvi, 

 Fl. GrcEc. ^ 26 1 ; to which circumstance Professor Sprengel al- 

 ludes, when he says the fruit of his genus Odontites is " some- 

 what downy." But these granulations are not common to all 

 the species of Bupleurum which are otherwise most strictly 

 allied, nor are they found in B. Odontites itself. I would rather 

 therefore preserve this most natural genus, Bupleurum, un- 

 disturbed. 



167. HYDROCOTYLE. White-rot. 



Linn. Gen. 127. Juss.226. Fl.Br.290. Tourn. t. \73. Lam. 

 t.\S8. Gcertn.t. 22. 



FL all perfect, prolific and regular. Cal. none. Pet. 5, 

 equal, ovate, spreading, undivided. Fila7n. awl-shaped, 

 spreading, shorter than the corolla. Anth. roundish. 

 Germ, nearly orbicular, compressed, ribbed, smooth. 

 Styles cylindrical, moderately spreading, tumid and some- 

 what ovate at the base, shorter than the stamens, perma- 

 nent. Stigmas simple. Fl. Recept. none. Fruit nearly 

 orbicular, rather broader than long, compressed, hollowed 

 out at the sides, crowned with the permanent, scarcely 

 enlarged, styles. Seeds hemispherical, tumid, each with 3 

 prominent dorsal angles. Juncture linear, very narrow. 



Creeping herbs, usually inhabiting wet or boggy ground. 

 Leaves simple, stalked, roundish, or kidney-shaped, or 

 peltate, seldom much divided. Umbels axillary, simple ; 

 rarely proliferous, or compound. Bracteas few, small. 

 Fl. whitish. 



