BURMANNIACE. (BURMANNIA FAMILY.) 451 
1. V. spiralis, L. — Slow-flowing streams and ponds, Florida, and north- 
ward. July-Sept. i — Plant creeping, proliferous. Leaves strap-shaped, 
obtuse, 5 — 9-nerved, sharply serrulate, 1°-3° long, 6" -12" wide. Scape of 
the sterile flowers 1'— 4’ long, of the fertile ones 29 — 5° long. Fruit 1/ - 3! long, 
often curved. 
LI 
3. LIMNOBIUM, Richard. 
Flowers monccious, from a membranaceous mostly sessile spathe, peduncled. 
Sterile spathe entire, 2 - 3-flowered ; the fertile 3-leaved, 1-flowered. Sepals 
and petals 3, united in the fertile flower, and coherent with the ovary. Stamens 
6 - 12, monadelphous : anthers linear. Ovary 6 — 9-celled, with as many central 
placentz, forming a many-seeded berry in fruit. Stigmas 6-9, each 2-parted. 
—A floating aquatic herb, with copious pendent roots, long-petioled round- 
cordate and many-nerved leaves, and small white flowers. 
1. L. Spongia, Richard. Stems extensively proliferous ; leaves purplish 
beneath, and with air-cells near the base ; sterile peduncles tender, soon vanish- 
ing ; the fertile ones commonly short and thick, recurved in fruit; petals oblong, 
alternating in the fertile flower with a pair of minute sterile filaments. (Hydro- 
charis spongiosa, Bosc.) — Still water, Florida, and northward. July and Aug. 
Y — Leaves 2! - 4' wide. 
OrDER T BURMANNIACEJE. (Burwannta Fawiry.) 
Small herbs, with filiform stems, scale-like leaves, and regular perfect 
flowers.— Sepals and petals united to form a tubular unequally 6-cleft 
corolla-like perianth, with the tube coherent with the 1 or 3-celled many- 
ovuled ovary. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the tube of the perianth: 
anther-cells separate, 2-lobed, opening crosswise. Style slender: stigmas 
3, dilated. Placente 3, central or parietal. Capsule many-seeded. Seeds 
minute, with a loose or reticulated testa. 
1 BURMANNIA, L. 
Tube of the perianth mostly 3-angled or 3-winged, 6-cleft, withering-persist- 
ent; the three interior lobes smaller. Stamens 3, very short, inserted opposite 
the interior lobes of the perianth. Ovary 3-celled, with three thick 2-lobed cen- 
tral placenta. Stigmas globose, dilated or 2-lobed. Capsule splitting at the 
apex into 3 valyes. — Radical leaves crowded and grass-like, or none; those of 
the stem minute, scalelike. Flowers racemose or clustered. 
1. B. biflora, L. Stem simple, or forked above, 1 — several-flowered ; leaves 
Subulate, scattered ; perianth blue, broadly 3-winged, the exterior lobes erect, — 
Ovate, acute, the interior linear and incurved; seeds oblong, striate. (Tripte- 
"t 
rella caxrulea, Michz.) — Grassy or mossy margins of swamps and ponds, Flor- 
m 1-5! high. In thi 
