Monochoria.'] PontederiacecB. 295 



CXXXIV.— PONTEDERIACE^. 



Fresh-water and marsh herbs ; stem or rootstock short or 

 long, creeping or floating, simple or branched ; 1. erect or 

 floating, petioled, narrow or broad, veins slender, parallel, 

 petiole often tumid and spongy with contained air-cells; base 

 sheathing; infl. centrifugal; fl, bisexual, in peduncled spikes or 

 racemes from the sheaths of the uppermost 1., bracteate ; 

 perianth unequally 6-partite, segm. petaloid, marcescent ; 

 stam. 6, inserted on the base of the perianth-segm., one 

 longest, with the fil. toothed on one side, anth. dorsifixed ; 

 ov. 3-celled, cells many-ovuled, style slender, stigma lobed, 

 ovules anatropous ; capsule membranous, loculicidally 3- 

 valved ; seeds small, embryo cylindric in floury endosperm. 



MONOCHORIA, Presl. 



For characters, see Order. Sp. about 4; 2 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Fl. long-pedicelled i. M. hast.efolia. 



Fl. short-pedicelled 2. M. vaginalis. 



1. m. hastaefolia, Presl. Reliq. Haenk. i. 128 (1830). Suja- 

 habarala, S. 



Herm. Mus. 71. Burm. Thes. 208. Fl. Zeyl. n. 129. Pontederia 

 hastaia, L. Sp. PI. 288; Moon, Cat. 24. Thw. Enum. 321. C. P. 3213. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 362. Roxb. Cor. PI. t. iii. {Pont, hastata). 



Rootstock very stout, creeping, spongy, clothed with brown 

 or purple remains of old sheaths, emitting tufts of filiform 

 roots clothed with root-hairs ; flg. branches short ; 1. ^-J by 

 5-6 in., cordate, hastate, or sagittate, obtuse or acute, many- 

 veined, petiole of the floral 1. i-ii in. long, tumid above, and 

 embracing the short stout ped., petiole of the radical 1. 

 18-24 in., base broad, sheathing; fl. crowded, racemed, or 

 subumbelled ; pedicels up to i in. ; perianth |-i in. across, 

 large segm. broadly obovate, smaller oblong ; fil. of long stam. 

 spurred ; large anth. dark blue, the others yellow ; capsule 

 \ in. diam., oblong or subglobose. 



Low country; common in ponds and streams. Fl. May, June; 

 brilliant purplish- blue. 



Also in India, Malaya, and China. 



2. M. vag-inalis, Presl., Reliq. Haenk, i. 128 (1830}. 

 Moon, Cat. 24. Thw. Enum. 321. C. P. 2315. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 363. Roxb. Cor. PI. t. no. Rheede, Hort. Mai. ii. 

 t. 44- 



Rootstock short, suberect or creeping, spongy; 1. very 

 variable, long-petioled, 2-4 in., from linear to ovate, or ovate- 



