Lagarosiphon:] Hydrocliavidece. 123 



Fresh-water plants. 

 Stem branching, leafy. 



L. whorled i. Hvdrilla. 



L. scattered 2. Lagarosiphon. 



Stem very short or o. 



Style short, stigmas 3 3. Blyxa. 



Styles 6, 2-fid " 4. Ottelia. 



Salt-water plants. 

 Stamens 3. 



Styles 6-12 5. Enhalus. 



Styles 3 6. Halophila. 



Stamens 6 7. Thalassia. 



I. KYDRZIiXiA, Rich. 

 A submerged fresh-water herb ; I. 3-4-nately whorled ; fl. 

 minute, dioecious, male solitary in a subglobose sessile spathe; 

 sep. 3, green ; pet. 3 ; stam. 3, anth. reniform ; pistillode 

 small ; fern. fl. i or 2, sessile in a tubular 2-toothed spathe ; 

 sep. 3 ; pet. 3 ; ov. with a long filiform beak, styles 2-3, 

 linear, stigmas fimbriate ; fr. subulate, 2-3-seeded ; seeds very 

 minute, oblong, testa produced at both ends. — Monotypic. 



K. ovalifolia. Rich, in Mem. Inst. Fr. ii. 76 (181 1). 



Serpicula verticillata., L. f., IVloon, Cat. 62. H. iicrticillata., Casp.; 

 Thw. Enum. 331. C. P. 2310. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 659 [^H. verticillata). Roxb. Cor. PI. ii. t. 164 {S. verti- 

 cillatci). 



Stem slender, a foot or more long, with fibrous roots, 

 much branched, flaccid, internodes long or short, nodes often 

 rooting ; branches with a short sheathing 1. at the base, upper 

 floating ; 1. \-\ in., sessile, spreading or recurved, lower some- 

 times opp., linear or linear-oblong acute or apiculate, entire 

 or serrulate, costa stout, veins o; spathe of male fl. muricate; 

 sep. ovate or obovate, very variable ; pet, cuneate, reflexed ; 

 fil. short, anth. large, bursting elastically ; fr. squarrosely 

 muricate. 



Ponds and still water up to 2000 ft.; common. Fl. Feb. 



Trop. Asia and Australia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Cent. Europe. 



Variable in foliage. The ordinary Ceylon plant is exactly H. Wightii, 

 Planch, of India, not distinguishable as a species. A very large form is 

 a great pest in the Lake at Colombo. 



The little membranous utricular spathe of the male fl. ultimately 

 splits vertically into two valves, liberatmg the flower-bud, which separates 

 from the plant and rises to the surface of the water, where it floats, 

 expands, and scatters its pollen. 



2. Z.AGAROSZFKON, V/art/. 



Submerged fresh-water herbs ; 1. scattered fascicled or 

 subwhorled, linear, serrulate, lower sometimes opposite ; fl. 



