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THE JOUliNAL OF BOTANY 



A NEW BRITISH FLOWERING PLANT. 

 By R. W. Butcher. 



[We are indebted to the Editors of The Naturalist for pei'inission 

 to reproduce the following' article from their issue for November, 

 1921.— El). JouEN. BoT.] 



While at Adel, near Leeds, on September 1st, I found a small 

 plant growing on the margin of a pool, which proved to be TiUcea 

 aq^uatica L., a species new to Great Britain. 



It is a small, bright green, succulent, glabrous plant, from 1 to 

 3 inches high, somewhat of the habit of a Sagina. Stem erect or 

 decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes, the lower portion faintly red. 

 Leaves glabrous, opposite, entire, linear, \ in. long, connate at the 



base, sessile. Flowers sessile, or with a very short j^edicel, axillary, 

 solitary, one in each pair of leaves, -^ in. diam., 4-partite. Sepals 

 small, green, ovate, blunt, united at the base. Petals white or 

 pinkish, lanceolate. Stamens 4, opposite the petals, alternating with 

 4 Avedge-shaped staminodes ; the filaments very slender, anthers 

 spherical. Gyno3cium apocarpous, of four carpels, each 6-10 seeded, 

 the upper portion onl}^ slightly recurved when mature. 



The above plant differs from the description of the German plant 

 in the very feeble development of any red tint to the stem, and in 

 the less recurved upper portion of the fruit. 



A sub-species (T. Vaillantii) with flowering pedicels longer than 

 the leaves occurs in France and Italy. 



It was the dominant plant, growing in abundance on the drying- 

 up mud on the margin of the pool, associated with : Poli/r/onum 

 ijiinus, JP. Ili/drojj/per, Limosella aquatica, MadiciUa jJttlustris, and 



