APGCARPE^ 371 



aquatic vegetation is more universal, the Water 

 Plantain is not so abundant in North Britain as in 

 the Midlands and East Anglia. It occurs in Ireland 

 and the Channel Islands. 



Lakes, ponds, the edges of rivers, and streams or 

 ditches form the habitat of this plant. Though 

 usually found in the reed swamp it is to some extent 

 amphibious and may be found growing on dry land. 

 It grows in the fresh-water aquatic formation, in 

 waters relatively rich in mineral salts, in slowly- 

 flowing streams, in the reed swamp association. 



There is a perennial rootstock (which is more or 

 less bulbous, the base being swollen), from the thick 

 sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks, and fleshy. The 

 leaves are radical, erect, stalked, ovate to lance- 

 shaped, the base acute, blunt or nearly heart-shaped. 

 There are five to seven ribs. The young leaves are 

 submerged or floating. 



The flowers are small, lilac or pale-rose colour, 

 with a yellow claw, in a pyramidal panicle, on a 

 long scape, with whorled compound branches. The 

 sepals are ovate to oblong, twice as long as the styles, 

 which are ventral below the top of the inner edge of 

 the carpel. There are twenty to thirty blunt, 

 inversely ovate carpels, which are in one whorl, 

 flattened at the margin, and arranged in a single ring 

 around a broad, flat, central axis. There are six 

 stamens by doubling of the outer whorl, coherent 

 below and forming a honey-gland. 



In height the Water Plantain is i to 3 ft. It 



