286 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



axillary shoots, which at the end have big buds. 

 When the plant is again at the surface the buds 

 grow into young plants, which, becoming detached, 

 sink to the bottom and hibernate. The rootstock 

 creeps in the mud, and the leaves are numerous, 

 stalkless, tufted, sword-like, long and narrow, tri- 

 angular, erect or spreading, rigid, tapering, brittle, 

 spinous, coarsely toothed, with small pointed teeth, 

 deep green, with many nerves, succulent. 



The plant is dioecious. The flowers are delicate 

 and white. The male flowers are several in a spathe, 

 stalked, like those of Frogbit, but larger, with twelve 

 stamens or more, the functionless ones (fifteen to 

 thirty) on the outside, with awl-like anther-stalks. 

 The anthers are linear. The solitary female flowers 

 are stalkless in the spathe. The tube is long, 

 enlarged below the middle, with numerous stami- 

 nodes, a few of which bear anthers. The outer 

 perianth-segments are three-lobed. The ovary is 

 flattened, with a narrow neck. The styles are six, 

 deeply divided nearly to the base. The ovules are 

 anatropous. The fruit is a berry, green, ovoid, 

 flagon-shaped, succulent, six-angled, six-celled, bent 

 down at right angles to the stalks, which are stout 

 and short, in the axils. The carpels separate. The 

 seeds have a mucous coat, and are numerous. 



The plant is floating, 6 to lo in. high. It flowers 

 in July and August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



In the Water Soldier the male and female flowers 

 are on different plants, the plant being dioecious. 



