288 RESTIA€EjE. [Butomus.- 



minute, attaclied to the wliole of tlie inner surface of the peri- 

 carp. Albumen none. Embryo straight or curved ; its radicle 

 next the hilum. — Aquatic plants. Leaves very vascular, often 

 yielding a milky juice, with parallel veins. Flowers in umbels, 

 conspicuous, purple or yellow. 



1. Butomus. Linn. Flowering-rush. 



Perianth single, coloured, 6-parted, inferior. Capsules six, 

 many-seeded. Seeds fixed to the inner lining of the capsule. 

 — Named from flow, an ox, and tefivw, to cut, because the 

 sharp leaves injure the mouths of cattle that browze upon 

 them. Enneandria. Hexagynia. 



1. B. umbellatus, Linn. Common Flowering-rush. Leaves 

 linear-subulate, trigonous; spatha of three leaves. Br. Fl. 1. 

 p. 185. E. FL v. ii. p. 245. E. Bot. t. G51. 



Ditches, and by the sides of river?. Banks of the Shannon at Cas- 

 tle-Connel, and other places near Limerick ; abundant in ditches near 

 Corrofin, and other places in the County of Clare ; in a ditch near 

 Lord Cloncurry's demesne, County of Kildare. It has also been ob- 

 served by Doctor H. Hincks and the late Mr. Thomas Drummond, 

 near Fermoy-bridge, County of Cork. Fl. June, July. %. — Root 

 white, tuberous. Leaves all radical, two to three feet long, linear, 

 acuminate, acutely trigonous, more or less spirally twisted at the ex- 

 tremity. Scape longer than the leaves, rounded. Umbel of many 

 rose-coloured flowers, on pedicels about four inches long, with scariose 

 sheathing bracteas at the base ; and these having a triphyllous mem- 

 branous spatha or involucre beneath them. Germens ovate, com- 

 pressed. Style about as long as the germen, with a recurved cleft 

 stigma. Seeds parietal, or fixed to the inner surface of the pericarp, 

 extremely small.— A highly ornamental plant. 



Ord. 87. RESTIACE^. Br. Pipe-wort Family. 



Perianth free, two to six-partite, rarely wanting. Stamens 

 definite, one to six, with from two to three inserted upon the 

 four to six-partite perianth, and opposite the inner segments; 

 anthers usually 1-celled. Ovary 1-celled, the cells 1 -seeded; 

 ovules pendulous. Pericarp capsular, or nut-like. Seed in- 

 verted. Albumen of the same shape with the seed. Embryo 

 lentiform, on the outside of the albumen, in the lower extremity 

 of the seed, remote from the hilum.— Herbaceous or somewhat 

 shrubby plants. Leaves simple, narrow or none. Culms naked 

 or often sheathing ; the sheaths cleft on one side, with equitant 

 margins. Floiuers usually aggregated, spiked or capitate, sepa- 

 rated with bracteas, and generally monoecious. 



