460 pentandria monogynia. Menyanthes. 



Beng. Cliool?. 



Teluiff. Autara Tamara. 



A native of pools of sweet water, where it floats, often not 

 reaching' the bottom with its roots. Flowering- time the wet 

 and cold seasons. 



Root annual, fibrous. Leaves radical, petioled, cordate, 

 lobes overlapping a little, margins somewhat scolloped, 

 smooth, on the upper side purplish green ; size various, the 

 larger from four to six inches long. Petioles round, length 

 various, on the upper side about two inches below the leaf 

 there is a viviparous tuberosity, which produces the flowers 

 as well as other leaves and roots, the old leaf and the 

 parent petiole decaying, leave this a new plant, each peti- 

 ole in succession doing the same. Peduncles many, from 

 the above-mentioned tuberosity of the petiole, one-flowered, 

 sufficiently long to raise the flower above the water while 

 expanded, afterwards they drop into the water, and there 

 ripen their seeds. Flowers pure white, about an inch in dia- 

 meter. Calyx five-leaved ; leaflets broad-lanceolate, perma- 

 nent. Corol of one petal ; divisions of the border oblong', 

 expanding with broad, membranaceous, waved, curled, rag- 

 ged margins; down the middle of each of them runs a ridge, 

 exactly similar to one half of the divisions themselves, no hair 

 on the flow ers. Nectary triple ; the exterior one consisting of 

 white,ramous filaments crowning the mouth of the tube of the 

 corol, as in JVerium ; the middle one of five beautiful yellow, 

 glandular bodies, which nearly fill the mouth of the tube, stand- 

 ing alternate with the filaments; and the interior one of five 

 hairy, yellow bodies surrounding the base of the germ. Fi- 

 laments inserted into the tube of the corol near its base. An- 

 thers oval. Style short. Stigma two-cleft ; segments large, 

 and lobate. Seeds a little compressed, scabrous. Receptacles 

 parietal, opposite, running down the sides of the capsules. 



2. M. indica. Willd. spec. i. 811. 



Petioles viviparous; leaves round-cordate. Upper side of 



