PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY. 379 
Family 16. PONTEDERIACEAE Dumort. Anal. Fam. BOOS One 
PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY. 
Perennial aquatic or bog plants, the leaves petioled, with thick blades, or 
long and grass-like. Flowers perfect, more or less irregular, solitary or spiked, 
subtended by leaf-like spathes. Perianth free from the ovary, corolla-like, 6- 
parted. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the tube or the base of the perianth; fila- 
ments filiform, dilated at the base or thickened at the middle; anthers 2-celled, 
linear-oblong or rarely ovate. Ovary 3-celled with axile placentae, or 1-celled 
with 3 parietal placentae; style filiform or columnar; stigma terminal, entire or 
minutely toothed; ovules anatropous, numerous, sometimes only 1 of them per- 
_fecting. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, or a 1-celled, 1-seeded utricle. Endo- 
sperm of the seed copious, mealy; embryo central, cylindric. 
About 5 genera and 25 species, inhabiting fresh water in the warm and temperate regions of 
America, Asia and Africa. 
Flowers 2-lipped, stamens 6; fruit a 1-seeded utricle. 1. Pontederia. 
Flowers regular; stamens 3; fruit a many-seeded capsule. 2. Heteranthera. 
1. PONTEDERIA I, Sp. Pl. 288. 1753. 
Leaves thick with many parallel veins, the petioles long, sheathing, arising from a hori- 
zontal rootstock. Stem erect, 1-leaved, with several sheathing bract-like leaves at the base. 
Flowers blue, ephemeral, numerous, spiked, the spike (or spadix) peduncled and subtended 
by a thin bract-like spathe. Perianth 2-lipped, the upper lip of 3 ovate lobes, the middle 
lobe longest, the lower lip of 3 linear-oblong spreading lobes. Stamens 6, borne at unequal 
distances upon the perianth-tube, 3 of them opposite the lower lip, the others opposite the 
upper lip; anthers oblong, subversatile, introrse. Ovary 3-celled, 2 of the cells abortive and 
empty. Fruita 1-seeded utricle, enclosed in the thickened tuberculate-ribbed base of the 
perianth. [In honor of Giulio Pontedera, 1688-1757, professor of botany in Padua. ] 
Seven or eight species, natives of America. 
1. Pontederia cordata I,. Pickerel-weed. (Fig. 915.) 
Pontederia cordata V,. Sp. Pl. 288. 1753. 
Stem rather stout, 1°-4° tall. Leaves ovate, 
cordate-sagittate, 4’-8’ long, 2/-6’ wide at the 
base, the apex and basal lobes obtuse; basal lobes 
often with long narrow stipule-like appendages on 
the sheathing petiole; spadix and inflorescence 
glandular-pubescent; perianth about 4’’ long, it 
and the filaments, anthers, and style bright blue, 
its tube curved, slightly longer than the lobes, 
middle lobe of the upper lip with 2 yellow spots at 
the base within; ovary oblong, tapering into the 
slender style; stigma minutely 3-6-toothed. 
Borders of ponds and streams, Nova Scotia to Min- 
nesota, south to Florida and Texas. After flowering 
the lobes and upper part of the perianth-tube wither 
above, while the persistent base hardens around the 
fruit. The flowers are trimorphous. June-Oct. 
Pontederia cordata lancifélia (Muhl.) Morong, Mem. 
Torr. Club, 5: 105. 1894. 
Pontederia lancifolia Muhl., Cat. 34. 1813. 
Pontederia cordata var. angustifolia Torr. Fl. N. U. 
S. 1: 343. 1824. 
Leaves lanceolate, rounded or narrowed at the base, LY 
2'-10' long, 3'’-8’’ wide. Ontario to New Jersey, Cuba and Texas. 
2. HETERANTHERA R. & P. Prodr. Fl. Per. 9. 1794. 
(SCHOLLERA Schreb. Gen. 785. 1789. Not Roth. 1788.] 
Herbs with creeping, ascending or floating stems, the leaves petioled, with cordate, ovate, 
oval or reniform blades, or grass-like. Spathes 1-flowered or several-flowered. Flowers 
small, white, blue or yellow. Lobes of the perianth nearly or quite equal, linear. Stamens 
3, equal or unequal, inserted on the throat of the perianth. Ovary fusiform, entirely or in- 
completely 3-celled by the intrusion of the placentae; ovules numerous; stigma 3-lobed. 
Fruit an ovoid many-seeded capsule, enclosed in the withered perianth-tube. Seeds ovoid, 
many-ribbed. [Greek, referring to the unequal anthers of some species. ] 
___ About 9 species, 2in tropical Africa, the others American; only the following in the United States. 
*Text contributed by the late Rev. THOMAS MORONG. 
