1 2 6 Hydrochai'idecs. [Enhalus. 



7-11-veined, usually submerged; petiole 3-gonous, depending 

 for length on the depth of the water, as does the long i-fld. 

 pad.; spathe i-i|^ in., 5-6-winged, wings undulate, mouth 

 5-6-toothed ; scp. small, oblong, green ; pet. nearly orbicular, 

 I in. broad, veins reticulate ; stam. small, fil. short, anth. 

 linear; ov. as long as the spathe, narrowly oblong, placentas 

 6-12; fr. i-ih in. 



Submerged in still water in the low country below 1000 ft. ; common. 

 Fl. Feb.; very large for this Order; petals white, with a golden-yellow 

 base. 



Throughout Trop. Asia and Australia. 



5. ENKALVS, Rich. 

 A submerged, marine, perennial herb ; rootstock long, stout, 

 creeping, crinite with the long fibres of decayed leaves; 1. in 

 pairs or threes at the nodes of the rootstock, arising from the 

 axil of a scale, narrowly linear ; fl. monoecious or dioecious; 

 male very minute, many enclosed in a short compressed 

 2-valved spathe; scp. and pet. 3 each, broad; stam. 3, anth. 

 subsessile; pistillode o; fern. fl. much larger, solitary, sessile 

 on a longer 2-valved spathe, which terminates a spirally coiled 

 ped. ; sep. 3, oblong, imbricate ; pet. 3, linear, subvalvate ; 

 staminodes o ; ov. ovoid, long-beaked, imperfectly 6-celled, 

 styles 6, bipartitite, arms fimbriate, ovules few ; fr. ovoid, 

 beaked, indehiscent, placentas spongy ; seeds large, conical, 

 testa cellular, mucilaginous, cotyledons subconic, green, fis- 

 sured, radicle large, white, plumule many-leaved. — Monot}'pic. 



E. Koenig'ii, Rich. i>t Mem. Insl. Fr. ii. 64 (iSii). 

 Stratiotes acivoidcs, L. f. Suppl. PI. 268 ; Moon, Cat. 69. E. inatinus, 

 (iriff., Thw. Enum. 332. C. P. 2296. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 663. Griff, Ic. PI. As. tt. 249, 250. 



Rootstock as thick as the middle finger, branched, creeping 

 and rooting in sand ; roots long, vermiform ; I. 2-3 ft., by ^-f 

 in. broad, loriform, tip rounded or truncate, toothe^d, margins 

 thickened, veins very slender, bases enclosed two or three 

 together in a membranous sheath ; male spathe sessile or 

 shortly pcduncled, about i in. long, ovoid, strigose; fl. minute, 

 globose in bud, long-pcdicelled, crowded on a short spadix ; 

 sep. and pet. broadly ovate, obtuse ; anth. large, papillose ; 

 fem. spathe on a very long spiral peduncle, narrowly oblong, 

 about 2 in. long, compressed, wtlves at length spreading and 

 recurved, strigose; fem. fl. much larger than the male, sep. ob- 

 long, pet. longer, linear, upper surface transversel)' corrugated ; 



