496 PONTEDKRIACEiE. (I'lCKEREL-WEED FAMILY.) 



A smooth herb, with fibrous roots, flat and branching stems, short sword-shaped 

 equitant leaves, and clustered greenish flowers. 



1. C. flabellata, Dcsv. Stems mostly creeping or floating; leaves linear- 

 sword-shiij)td ; tliuse of the stem nearly opposite ; heads cymose, scattered, top- 

 shaped, several-flowered ; sepals rigid, lanceolate-subulate, slender-pointed, the 

 exterior ones strongly keeled, and as long as the linear-ol)long obtuse capsule, 

 much shorter than the flat interior ones ; filaments exscrted. (Juncus re])ens, 

 Aliclix.) — Miry banks of streams and ponds, Florida to North Carolina. July. 

 — Stems ^°- 3° long. 



Order la4. PONTEDERIACEiE. (Pickerel-weed 

 Family.) 



Perennial aquatic or marshy herbs, with perfect mostly irregular flowers 

 from a 1-leaved spathe. — Perianth corolla-like, unequally 6-cleft or 6- 

 parted, imbricated in the bud, withering-persistent. Stamens 3-6, more 

 or less unequal, and unequally inserted on the throat of the perianth: 

 anthers 2-celIed, erect, introrse. Ovary free. Style single: stigma 3-6- 

 lobed. Capsule 1 - 3-celled, 1 - many-seeded. Seeds auatropous. Embryo 

 slender in mealy albumen. 



1. PONTEDERIA, L. Wampee. Pickerel-weed. 



Perianth funnel-shaped, 2-lipped, with the upper lip 3-lobcd, the lower 3-parted, 

 the curved tuljc fleshy and coiled in fruit. Stamens 6, unequally inserted ; the 

 three lower ones exserted, the tlirce upper short and often imperfect : amliers 

 oval, blue. Ovary 3-celled, two of the cells empty, tlic other with a single sus- 

 pended ovule. Style slender. Capsule (utricle) 1-seedcd. — Rhizoma tliick and 

 creeping. Stem erect, bearing above the middle a single shoit-petiolcd leaf, and 

 at the summit a hairy spike of blue flowers, from a 1-leaved spathe. Radical 

 leaves long-pctiolcd, sheathing. 



1. P. COrdata, L. Stem and terete petioles erect (2°-3° high); leaves 

 (3' -8' long) varying from round-cordate to lance-oblong, obtuse, finely nerved ; 

 spike dense, cylindrical (2' -4' long), the peduncle enclosed in the convolute 

 spathe ; upper lobe of the hairy perianth spotted with yellow, the tube 6-ribbed. 

 (P. lancifolia, Muld., and P. angustifolia, Pursh, are narrow-leaved forms.) — 

 Miry margins of ponds and rivers, Florida, and northward. July - Sept. 



2. SCHOLLERA, Schreb. 



Perianth salver-form, nearly equally 6-lobed, the tube elongated and filiform. 

 Stamens 3, nearly erjual : filaments subulate : anthers sagittatc-oblong, yellow. 

 Style long and slender. Caj)sidc ol)long, 1-celled, locuiicidaily 3-valved, witii 

 tlirec parietal placcntaj numy-secdcd. — A small acpiatic herb, with slender 

 branching stems, linear sessile leaves, and a small tcmiinal yellow flower. 



