White to Green and Brown Flowers 167 



seeded, indehiscent carpels, which are rounded on the back, with a deep 

 wide groove between them, smooth, or very rarely slightly rugose. 



This is an aquatic herb, with submerged, spreading, 

 thready leaves set in whorls of four or five round the thick 

 stems. Sometimes it has floral leaves that are very small 

 and usually shorter than the blossoms. The name Myrio- 

 phyllnm is from the Greek and means " myriad-leaved." 

 The flowers are minute and white-petalled and grow in tiny 

 interrupted spikes. 



BOTTLE BRUSH 



Hippuris vulgaris. Water Milfoil Family 



Stems: slender, glabrous. Leaves: linear or lanceolate, acute, ses- 

 sile, in crowded verticles of six to twelve, more or less sphacelate at the 

 apex. Flowers: small, axillary; calyx-limb minute, entire; petals none; 

 stamen one, with a short thick filament and comparatively large two- 

 celled anther dehiscent by lateral slits. Fruit: a small, one-celled, one- 

 seeded drupe. 



This is also an aquatic herb, with slender erect stems, 

 bearing circles of from six to twelve narrow leaves in the 

 axils, and curious tiny flowers which have no petals and only 

 one stamen inserted on the margin of the calyx. The plant 

 grows from eight to twenty inches high. 



Hippuris montana, or Mountain Mare's Tail, is a tiny 

 species growing only two to four inches high, and has nar- 

 row pointed leaves in whorls and an oval fruit. 



WILD SARSAPARILLA 



Aralia nudicaulis. Ginseng Family 



Stems: scarcely rising out of the ground, smooth. Leaves: com- 

 pound, leaflets oblong-ovate, pointed, serrate. Flowers: in umbels. 



The somewhat woody stems of this plant are extremely 

 short and have a single long-stalked compound leaf, and a 



